721.23/854: Telegram
The Consul at Geneva (Gilbert) to the Secretary of State
[Received 11:35 a.m.]
21. 1. The Council met this morning at 10 a.m. The first item on the agenda was the Colombian-Peruvian dispute. I had been confidentially apprised late last evening that the Committee of Three had prepared a “stiff” telegram to Peru and a telegram to Colombia to submit to the Council.
2. Department’s telegram No. 9, January 25, 1 p.m., was in process of being decoded at 10 a.m. Learning that Drummond was already at the Council although it was first meeting in private session and the first item on the public agenda had not been reached, I had conveyed to him knowledge of the receipt of the Department’s telegram referred to and what I could gather of the general tenor of its contents.
3. The Council approved the dispatch of telegrams to the Governments of Colombia and Peru. The text of the telegram to Colombia which incorporates the telegram to Peru is as follows:
“I have today addressed the following telegram to the Foreign Minister of Peru:
‛The Council thanks you for your telegrams and expresses its appreciation of the assurances to the effect that Peru will not take any action contrary to the Covenant of the League. The Council having studied the documents submitted to it on the subject, and in part, the telegram addressed to you by Mr. Urdaneta on January 11th and your reply dated January 14th, feels bound to draw the attention of the Peruvian Government to the fact that it is the duty of Peru, as a member of the League, to refrain from any intervention by force on Colombian territory and to ensure that all necessary instructions are given to the Peruvian commanders concerned to the effect that the military forces of Peru should take no action beyond the defense of Peruvian territory and should not hinder Colombian authorities from the exercise of full sovereignty and jurisdiction in territory recognized by treaty to belong to Colombia. I have today communicated to the Colombian Government a copy of this telegram with the following message from the Council.’
The Council trusts that in the exercise of their legitimate rights the Colombian Government will take strictest precautions not only to avoid the violation of Peruvian territory but to make clear to the Peruvian Government that it is not the intention of the Colombian Government to commit any such violation. The Council further trusts that [Page 430] in the act of restoring order the Colombian authorities will exercise all possible clemency and limit their action strictly to the preservation of order in their own territory.”
4. The discussion in the Council comprised: (a)—long and detailed statements of their positions by the representatives of Colombia and Peru; (b)—advocacy of the maintenance of treaties, by inference strongly in support of Colombia, on the part of other Council members.
5. Have arranged for meeting with Drummond this afternoon in which case I shall follow instructions in your number 9 and report by telegraph.