Office of the Historian

810.5051/43: Telegram

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Colombia (Lane)

Washington, April 8, 1944—6 p.m.

476. RDC and FEA consider it inadvisable to submit to the jurisdiction of the court as suggested in your 652, April 6. Department agrees. You should therefore take matter up with Foreign Office and ask that action be dismissed on the ground that RDC is an official agency of this Government, entirely owned and controlled by the Government, and as such is immune from the jurisdiction of the court. [Page 867] Its official status has been recognized by the agreement dated July 1, 1942,40 signed by representatives of our two Governments.

You may say that if the Colombian Government considers that the plaintiff has a meritorious claim and if such claim is submitted to this Government through the diplomatic channel, it will receive careful consideration.

Inform representatives RDC and FEA of foregoing. Their principals request that the matter be placed in your hands.

Hull
  1. Text not printed; for correspondence on the negotiation of this agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, pp. 170 ff.↩