704.2123/10: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru ( Dearing )

37. Your 89, February 18, 1 p.m. Your responsibility for taking all available measures for the exercise of good offices with the Peruvian Government began as soon as the latter agreed to your assuming charge of Colombian interests. The time when your actual custodianship of the archives of the Colombian Legation began seems to be a question of fact depending upon your arrangement with Lozano.

The action reported in your No. 91 in asking for adequate police protection for the American Embassy and the Colombian Legation is fully approved.

For your information and guidance regarding your duties while in charge of the interests of Colombia, you are referred to the Supplement to Foreign Relations, 1914, page 731 and following especially page 740. See also Hyde’s International Law, Volume 1, page 769, and Moore’s Digest, Volume 4, pages 599 and following. While the cases mentioned in these citations have to do with a condition of actual warfare, nevertheless it is felt that the general principles therein laid down would apply to the present situation.

Stimson