The Government of Colombia has given to the negotiation all the importance pertaining thereto, on account of the great political and commercial interests involved. This is unmistakably shown in a note which the minister of this department, Hon. Sr. Paúl, sent on September 25, 1902, to the governors of the departments, in which he invited them to discuss and study with all freedom, through the press, the project of the treaty and the documents which should be published, with the object that when Congress should meet the country should be sufficiently instructed in that which particularly applied to the patriotic interests, and their representatives in the legislative bodies could easily reach a solution which would harmonize with the rights and benefits of the Republic. There is a very notable difference between some of the propositions presented by Colombia and the respective modifications introduced by the United States. That difference is apparent comparing the memorandum presented by the Colombian legation on March 31, 1903, with the proposed bases by the Secretary of State, especially those referring to the sovereignty of the zone, judicial jurisdiction in same, and the price of compensation for the use of the same for the mere proprietorship of the Panama Railroad, and for the rent of $250,000 demanded for the same railroad, likewise as to the rights, privileges, and exemptions which she gave. It is further to be observed that in the memorandum of the legation the establishment of tribunals in the zone was not mentioned, while the Secretary of State, in a project sent with his note of November 18, 1902, proposed it, and that they be divided into three classes, Colombians, Americans, and mixed; as also in the Colombian memorandum, a sum of $7,000,000 American gold was asked and an annual sum which was to be determined as a price for the enjoyment of the railroad and fee for use of the zone, and in attention to other circumstances. The Secretary of State only offered a sum of $7,000,000 and an aunual rent of $100,000, or if preferred, a sum of $10,000,000 and an annual rent of $10,000. The Government ordered the legation to ask a sum of $10,000,000 and an annuity of $600,000. The Secretary of State, in a note which had the form of an ultimatum, reduced the rent to $250,000. The diminution of $350,000 in a period of only one hundred years represents a difference of $35,000,000, and as the convention will probably last more than a century, it is clear that the difference is no light matter, but of much consideration. It is also well to make known here what was a motive of substantial difference, that the canal and railroad companies can not transfer their privileges without the authority of the Colombian Government and without arrangement of their pending business. The broad manner in which the Government of the United States has interpreted the stipulation of the projected convention in this respect has caused the refusal of the companies to enter into arrangements which ought to precede the ratification and exchange, among others, that relative to the shares which Colombia has in the capital of the New Panama Canal Company, a refusal which makes difficult the legislative approval of the pact. This ministry had not known that the United States revoked any law in order to make possible the treaty with Colombia. The Government of the Republic ordered its representative in Washington to sign the pact in the belief that, in conformity with article 4 of the law approved June 28, 1902 (Spooner bill), if the Government of the United States could not obtain from the Government of Colombia dominion over the necessary territory for the work, nor the rights mentioned in articles 1 and 2 of the said law, nor a satisfactory title to the properties of the New Panama Canal Company, the President of the United States, by medium of the Isthmian Canal Commission, would dig and construct a canal for boats by the Nicaragua route. In consequence the Government of Colombia, which has held in view of this law that the base of the treaty on the part of the United States is according as it. has been expressed in the introduction accompanying the treaty, has derived the correct conclusion that the only result that can affect adversely the interests of this nation, if their Congress should reject the project of the treaty, is that the Government of the United States will cease negotiations and adopt the Nicaragua route for the construction of the canal. When is there such an undue delay in the ratification of a treaty which will tend to cause a serious compromise in the friendly relations with the contracting party? In this country there would be an undue delay if, the ratification having been ordered by the law, the executive power should show a disposition to disregard it with the evident purpose of causing injury to his own country or the other nation interested in the pact. But as has already been expressed, the previous requisite of legislative approval is indispensable for the exchange of ratifications, and before this is done the treaty is but a project which, according to the law of nations, has no rights or obligations, and for the same reason, according to that law, to reject or delay its ratification is not cause for the adoption of measures tending to alter the friendly relations between the two countries. If such were the case the preparing of the pact would be the occasion of a serious danger instead of an element of peace and progress, of which Colombia has no fear in that the political relations of the great Republic, which offered the blood of its sons to liberate Cuba, and after having stopped the disintegration of Venezuela, as a result of their boundary dispute with Great Britain, deeds which have been made notorious before the world, in most solemn manner, as showing their determination to procure and preserve the independence, sovereignty, and integrity of the American nations. If the Congress, using its inherent prerogative of national sovereignty, rejects the pact in question because, in their judgment it is not for the benefit of the Republic, it will be, I am sure, with much regret that it can not comply with the desires of the Government and the Congress of the United States; but feeling confident for reasons of justice that by this act it will not have altered in any particular the friendly relations which fortunately exist between the two Republics, and to the preservation of which Colombia attaches the highest importance. The Minister: (Signed) LUIS CARLOS RICO. No. 56.] Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Bogotá, June 20, 1903. SIR: I have the honor to confirm my telegram of this date, which should read as follows: June 20, 5 p. m. Extra session of Congress convened to-day. Joaquin Velez, president of the Senate; José Medina Calderón, president of the Chamber of Representatives. The President's message deals with canal convention as follows: "To my Government has been presented this dilemma; either it lets our sovereignty suffer detriment or renounces certain pecuniary advantages, to which, according to the opinion of many, we have a right. In the first case to consent to the sacrifice of our sovereignty and not aspiring to great indemnification, the just wishes of the inhabitants of Panama and other Colombians would be satisfied if the canal were opened, but the Government would be exposed to the charge afterwards that it did not defend our sovereignty and that it did not defend the interests of the nation. In the second case, if the canal is not opened by Panama the Government will be accused for not having allowed Colombia that benefit which is regarded as the commencement of our aggrandizement. I have already allowed my wish to be understood that the canal should be opened through our territory. I believe that even at the cost of sacrifices we ought not to put obstacles to such a grand undertaking, because it is an immensely beneficial enterprise for the country, and also because once the canal is opened by the United States our relations will become more intimate and extensive, while our industries, commerce, and our wealth will gain incalculably. I leave the full responsibility the decision of this matter brings with Congress. I do not pretend to make my opinion weigh. When I have given instructions to our representative in Washington it has been coupled with the order that the decision of this important matter must be left with Congress. After years in which the question has been treated in a vague way without precise conditions, it is now presented in a way to obtain practical and positive results. It has been our indisputable diplomatic triumph that the Senate and Government of the United States should declare, notwithstanding every effort to the contrary, the superiority of the Colombian route." I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. M. BEAUPRÉ. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. No. 57.1 LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Bogotá, June 20, 1903. SIR: I have the honor to report that the National Congress met in extra session on Saturday, the 20th instant, at 1 o'clock p. m. In the Senate Gen. Joaquin F. Vélez was elected president; Dr. Antonio Goméz Restrepo, first vice-president; Luis A. Mesa, second vice-president, and Miguel A. Peñarredonda, secretary. In the Chamber of Representatives José Medina Calderón was elected president; Carlos Matamoras, first vice-president; Guillernas Valencia, second vice-president; Dr. Fernando Restrepro Briceño, secretary. There was not a full attendance, but sufficient for a quorum in each house. As I have heretofore predicted, there is a full and ample majority of the friends of the Government in both houses of Congress, and such legislation as the Government may seriously desire will be enacted. Under the laws the officers are elected for one month, and as General Vélez, the president of the Senate, is one of the most vehement and outspoken of the enemies of the canal convention, I take it that there will be no canal legislation undertaken during the first month of Congress. It is understood that to-morrow a special message will be sent to the Senate upon the canal matter, but that the session will be a secret one. I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. M. BEAUPRÉ. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. [Telegram.] UNITED STATES LEGATION, Bogotá, June 23, 1903. (Received June 27, 1903.) Confidential. Friends of the Government have control in Congress. I believe any legislation seriously desired by the Government will pass. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. [Telegram.] BEAUPRÉ. UNITED STATES LEGATION, Bogotá, June 25, 1903. (Received June 27, 1903.) Opposition Chamber of Representatives opened canal discussion yesterday demanding documents relating to the treaty. The Government objected because it was not ready to present the treaty. The Government was sustained; vote 38 to 5. BEAUPRÉ. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. [Telegram.] UNITED STATES LEGATION, Confidential. Am informed that the treaty will not be presented until the President is confident it will be confirmed. Chamber of Repre sentatives is favorable, but unfriendly influence makes the majority in the Senate uncertain. Absentees have been sent for and the Government using influence on Senators here. Do you desire me to telegraph such information? BEAUPRÉ. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. No. 67.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Referring to the Department's No. 6 of April 28, 1903, and to my No. 44 of June 10, 1903, concerning the request of the Colombian Government to the Panama Canal and Railroad companies for the appointment of agents to negotiate the cancellation of present concessions, etc., I have the honor to report that on yesterday I received a note from the minister for foreign affairs in reply to mine of the 10th ultimo, a copy and translation of which I herewith transmit. I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. M. BEAUPRÉ. MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN RELATIONS, Mr. MINISTER: I have the honor to receive the attentive note which your excellency has been pleased to address to me on the 10th of the present month, with the English version of the notes in which the minister of hacienda of Colombia requested the railroad company and the New Panama Canal Company to name agents to represent them in the negotiations relative to the permission which is necessary for the transfer of their respective concessions to the Government of the United States. The Congress being in session, to which belongs the decision as to the approbation of the treaty between the Republic of Colombia and the United States for the construction of the interoceanic canal between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the said note of your excellency will be presented to that body to the end that they may know the construction that the Government of the United States gives to article 1 of that compact. The Congress of Colombia in determining the meaning, and, at the same time, the scope of article 1 of the treaty, will have to consult the antecedents of the negotiations, among which are found the said notes of the minister of hacienda, which have the dates 25th and 27th of December, 1902, respectively, while the treaty for the opening of the interoceanic Canal was signed January 22, 1903; for this reason they were not interpretations of the pact, but they were destined to prevent certain foreseen eventualities in the course of the negotiations, as is seen in that which the minister of Colombia expressed in his memorial addressed to the Secretary of State in Washington the 22d of November, 1902. In paragraph b, section A, it says: "The preceding reasons serve in part also to show the necessity which exists that the Government of Colombia celebrate a special contract with the companies which are to cede their rights;" but to this must be added that the treaty alone between Colombia and the United States can not have the judicial effect of resolving or canceling the legal bonds which exist between the Republic of Colombia and those companies, bonds arising from a perfect contract which can not be dissolved, in conformity with the principles of universal jurisprudence, because one of the parties celebrates a compact, on the same material, with a third, which in this case would be the United States. As in the same way the United States must celebrate a contract in order to acquire the rights of the said companies, and that negotiation can not be included in the treaty which is to be celebrated between the two countries, neither can the resolution of the obligation between Colombia and the two companies be verified in the treaty. If such were admitted, it would result that Colombia, relinquishing all her rights in relation with these entities (corporations?), or depriving herself of the means to make them effective, would leave in force her obligations to them. The very payment of the privileged shares which Colombia possesses in the canal company would not have any guarantee by the omission of a special contract, so much the more so that in the proposed reform by the Department of State to article 1 of the memorandum of April, it was clearly expressed that the United States would not contract any obligation in that respect ("no obligation under this provision is imposed upon or assumed by the United States"). The affirmations of your excellency as to the legality of the sale to a foreign government of the shares of the Panama Railway and by that manner to transfer the control of the work, imposes upon me the duty to call your excellency's attention to a very important circumstance, in that the necessity for the consent of Colombia to that sale is recognized in article 1 of the treaty, and to manifest to your excellency that each share, by representing a certain proportionate value of the privilege, or, that is, of the railroad itself, and the transfer of that to a foreign government being prohibited, the shares can not be sold, because with them they would become copartners in the property of the privilege, which is judicially inadmissible. The restrictive condition of the contracts of 1850 and 1867 do not exclude from the penalty of forfeiture the sale of portions of the privilege. This is indivisible as to the rights conceded and the obligations imposed, and if it were not so the result would be that if a foreign government bought the total or a greater part of the shares, it would become, by this means, proprietor of the railroad, or at least of a part so great of its value that it would give to it the administration of the work, and in this way the prohibition of the sale of the privilege to a foreign government would be eluded. Your excellency knows very well that any interpretation ought to be discarded that makes illusionary that which is stipulated, and in this case the condition in reference would be reached if any proceeding was admitted by which the privilege for the construction and exploitation of the railroad could be transferred to a foreign government. I avail myself, etc., To His Excellency, Hon. A. M. BEAUPRÉ, Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States, etc. Mr. Loomis to Mr. Beaupré. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Have you fully acquainted Colombian Government with Department instruction of April 28? Keep Department informed as to situation. LOOMIS. Mr. Beaupré to Mr. Hay. No. 68.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to confirm my telegram of this date, which should read as follows: "July 2, 9 a. m. Confidential. Have received information, privately, that the President had a meeting of senators at the palace yesterday, urging the necessity of the ratification of the treaty. Heated discussion ensued, the majority declaring in opposition to the treaty. At present the majority in the senate seem against ratification." I am, sir, your obedient servant, A. M. BEAUPRÉ. |