810.733/9–944: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Colombia ( Lane )
1128. Department seriously concerned over Colombian Government proposal for formation of official company to consolidate telecommunications and eliminate All America Cables by declining to renew its present concession which expires in February, 1945 as reurtel 1558 September 9.32 Obviously consolidation of telecommunications within Colombia into a single company is a purely domestic matter [Page 863] with which Department is disinclined to intervene. However, international traffic is a matter which deeply concerns this Government as well as United States users of international facilities. The right of control by Colombia of its own termini in the international service is fully recognized but the Department must advert to the long and effectual service rendered by All America Cables and Radio in the maintenance of effective international telecommunications between the United States and Colombia and to the fact that in spite of the handicap of Colombian terminal charges its service has been sufficiently effective to attract from sixty to eighty percent of the international traffic. In the efforts of the United States and Colombia to faciliate trade and encourage an adequate exchange of information to the benefit of both countries, this effectiveness should not be disregarded. It is for these and other reasons that the Department instructs you urgently to request the Colombian Government to delay the carrying out of its proposals as they affect international telecommunications and that it give further study to this entire problem. The Department will be glad to lend every appropriate assistance for the purpose of this study.
You may in your discretion also impress upon the appropriate Colombian authorities the desirability of placing in effect at an early date the northbound rate schedule negotiated between Colombia and the United States by a recent exchange of notes.
- Not printed.↩