721.23/907 Supp.: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Brazil (Morgan)
18. With reference to Department’s circular telegram of January 25, Secretary of State today sent following reply to Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru to his telegram of the 27th:
[Here follows text of telegram of January 30 to the Peruvian Minister for Foreign Affairs, printed supra.]
I desire you to suggest to the Minister of Foreign Affairs that if he finds that Peru does not accept the Brazilian proposal within a reasonable time and that consequently it is impossible longer to have the Colombian Government detain its ships from going to Leticia, the Brazilian Government consider whether it would not then be well as a last effort for the Brazilian Government to remind the Peruvian Government of its statements that it will abide by the Pact of Paris and other treaties and also that the Colombian Government definitely stated in its telegram of January 11th to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Peru69 that Colombian forces are going to Leticia on a peaceful mission of reestablishing Colombian authority in Leticia and will not attack Peruvian forces unless first attacked by them, and that, in view of these statements of both Governments and the failure of Peru to accept the Brazilian proposal, Brazil suggest, as the then most satisfactory remaining way of preserving peace, that the Peruvian Government instruct the Peruvian forces not to interfere with the Colombian forces advancing on Leticia and publicly advise the [Page 440] occupiers of Leticia to offer no resistance to the peaceful reestablishment by Colombia of her sovereign authority in that area. This would permit the reoccupation of Leticia by Colombia without bloodshed after which the conference in Rio, under the good offices of the Brazilian Government, could then adjust any other outstanding matters between the two countries.
- League of Nations, Official Journal, April 1933, p. 609.↩