740.0011 Pacific War/975: Telegram
The Ambassador in Colombia (Braden) to the Secretary of State
[Received December 9—1:57 a.m.]
623. With reference to my telephone conversation35 this evening with Walmsley36 the following is exact text of statement handed me this evening by President Santos and which may be published immediately.
Translation
“Official note from the President of the Republic.
“After a careful examination of the situation created for the Colombian nation by the state of war existing since yesterday between the United States of America and Japan and of the antecedents and characteristics of this most serious conflict, the Council of Ministers unanimously approved the following conclusions presented for its consideration by the President of the Republic and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“‘The aggression effected yesterday by the armed forces of the Japanese Empire against the United States constitutes the case clearly provided for in Resolution No. XV approved at the Second Meeting of Foreign Ministers in Habana concerning mutual assistance and defensive cooperation of the American nations by which it is declared that any attack of a non-American State against the integrity or inviolability of the territory or against the sovereignty or political [Page 80] independence of an American State will be considered as an act of aggression against the States signing this declaration. That declaration, signed by the Government of Colombia and approved by law No. 20 of 1941, creates obligations for Colombia to which the nation will be entirely faithful. The Government accordingly resolves to declare its diplomatic relations with the Japanese Empire broken and to reaffirm in a solemn and categoric manner its adherence to the policy of inter-American solidarity and of cooperation of the American Republics in defense of the continent, in the manner this policy was defined at the Pan American Conference at Lima and at the meetings of Foreign Ministers at Panama and Habana.37 The Government has taken and will continue to take the necessary measures to cooperate in the defense of the continent and in particular, in order that its spontaneous and irrevocable resolution may be efficacious, to prevent by all means the possibility that the safety of the Panama Canal may be directly or indirectly menaced from Colombian territory or that acts contrary to whatever is entailed by the rules of American solidarity may be committed on Colombian territory.’
“Bogotá, December 8, 1941.”