611.2131/293: Telegram
The Chargé in Colombia (Washington) to the Secretary of State
[Received 6:35 p.m.]
28. My telegram No. 25, February 8, 5 p.m. Foreign Minister Olaya informed me this morning that he is very anxious to expedite the negotiations for a commercial treaty but that the Colombian Government’s advisers in this matter, of whom the principal one is Hernández, are very much perturbed over the proposals submitted by the American Government in its memorandum of December 1010 to the Colombian Chargé d’Affaires ad interim. He says that they consider that the proposals alter some of the most fundamental provisions of the treaty signed in December 1933. I replied that I believed the United States Government was disposed to give sympathetic consideration to any counter-proposals which might be made by Colombia and I repeated your offer to send an American expert to Bogotá. He stated that problems of internal politics as well as the negotiations with Peru regarding the Rio de Janeiro Pact are occupying a great deal of his time at present and that his next conference with Hernández will be on Tuesday next week. He promised that on Wednesday or Thursday of next week he would give me an appointment for the purpose of indicating the reply of the Colombian Government to the proposals of the United States Government.