701.2123/24
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Peru (Dearing)
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your strictly confidential despatch No. 2625, dated February 20, 1933,10 reporting the circumstances surrounding the sacking of the Colombian Legation in Lima by an organized mob on the morning of February 19th last, and asking for instructions not only with regard to the disposition of certain property of the Colombian Government which was saved from the wreck of the Legation, but also requesting guidance in relation to the discharge of the good offices which this Government has assumed in relation to Colombian affairs in Peru.
The Department has found your detailed report of the sacking of the Colombian Legation of interest and takes this opportunity to express its appreciation for your conscientious activity in behalf of Colombian interests.
With reference to the last paragraph of page 7 of your despatch under acknowledgement, the Department has already answered your query as to when the Embassy’s responsibility for Colombian interests began, in its telegraphic instruction No. 37, February 20, 1933, 6:00 p.m. It has also instructed you telegraphically (Telegram No. 33, February 16, 1933, 3:00 p.m.11) regarding the request contained in the last paragraph of your despatch for further instructions concerning the Embassy’s custodianship of Colombian affairs. Moreover, in its telegraphic instruction No. 37, above referred to, the Department made specific reference, for your information and guidance in [Page 557] regard to the general nature of your duties while in charge of Colombian interests, to pertinent sections of Foreign Relations, Hyde’s International Law, and Moore’s Digest.
In general, as you will have perceived from a study of the references above mentioned, the duties of the Embassy on behalf of Colombia in the present contingency must be of an informal nature, and you are not under any circumstances to act as the medium for diplomatic interchange between the Colombian Foreign Office and the Peruvian Government. Should the Peruvian Government request you to perform such diplomatic functions, you will, of course, inform the Department promptly so that it can decide upon the propriety of informing the Colombian Government. With regard to the disposition of the archives of the Colombian Legation and to the matter of seeking reimbursement for the passage by air of the Colombian Minister and his suite, however, on both of which points you requested instructions in your despatch, you may communicate with the Legation at Bogotá with a view to coming to an informal understanding with the Colombian Government as to its wishes in the premises.
Very truly yours,