answerable through the gravity of the oath which he took on taking possession of his office. That consequently the Government, in accordance with the laws, orders that those who are found to be responsible for the crime mentioned-viz, treason to the country-shall be brought to justice, for which it shall be reported to the competent authority in order to further the matter. The President, R. REYES. Minister of the interior, Dionisio Arango; minister of foreign affairs, A. Vasquez Cobo; minister of the treasury, Tobias Valenzuela; minister of war, Manuel M. Sanclemente; minister of public instruction, J. M. Rivas Groot; minister of public works, F. de P. Manotas. Secretary of the cabinet, CAMILO TORRES ELICECHEA. As the publication of Señor Mendoza Perez, which the declaration of the cabinet of ministers discusses, is subversive of order, and as the cabinet decided that the laws on public order shall be applied to the accomplices of Señor Mendoza Perez, you will ascertain if there are any accomplices in that locality who have received the publication mentioned and who are distributing it. The whole country is perfectly calm, and in order to give greater stability to the peacefulness it is necessary to be extremely zealous in avoiding and suppressing everything which might disturb it. The minister of war, SANCLEMENTE. [Inclosure 2-Translation.] [Resolution No. 64.] REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA-WAR DEPARTMENT. The minister of war, in compliance with the laws on police and preservation of public order, and considering— 1. That the Government, in accordance with the declaration of the cabinet of ministers of the 10th instant, referring to Señor Diego Mendoza Perez, exminister of Colombia at Washington, has ordered that a case of treason to the country be brought against that individual, and that he be summoned to voluntarily present himself to answer the charges made against him, or to request his extradition if he should refuse to obey the call which is to be made. 2. That they have proofs that the agents and accomplices of Señor Diego Mendoza Perez have reproduced in the press of a foreign country the letter of this gentleman which is the cause of the present resolution, adding comments to it which dishonor the country. 3. That in this city slanderous anonymous letters are sent to peaceful and honest citizens and to public employees in which they are threatened with death, and although the authors of such anonymous letters are professional agitators and slanderers, insignificant in number and without any social or political standing, it is necessary to prevent their continuing to disturb society. 4. That the governors of the departments must prevent the slanderers and agitators by all the means in their power from doing the mischief in the territory of their respective jurisdictions which they propose to do in this capital, spreading the story that they have supporters in their campaign of defamation and threats against the life and honor of the citizens and public employees, and which may produce civil war. 5. That peace and tranquillity existing, as they do exist, in the whole Republic, with the exception of a few persons only in this capital who are trying to keep its inhabitants agitated and alarmed, it is indispensable that this unpatriotic work be prevented from continuing and the evil from extending beyond the capital. It is resolved: 1. To summon Señor Diego Mendoza Perez, ex-minister of Colombia in Washington, to appear before the Government in this city to answer to the charges which have been made, by which he is declared a traitor to the country, it being understood that if he does not voluntarily present himself within a period of sixty days his extradition shall be requested through the department of foreign affairs. 2. To solicit the attorney-general of the nation to indict Señor Diego Mendoza Perez for treason to the country through the judicial division of the national police, taking the depositions of those persons who appear to be accomplices of Mendoza Perez or his agents for developing the destructive design advised in his letter of July 2, of the present year, published in New York, which has been extensively distributed in Colombia and the other Spanish-American countries. The indictment shall be prepared under the supervision of the attorney-general of the nation, and when found it shall be decided what court shall try Señor Mendoza Perez and his accomplices. 3. To specially charge the governor of the capital district and those of the departments, the chief of the garrison at Bogota, the gendarmerie, and the national police: (a) To ascertain through their subordinate agents who the few persons are that are occupied in directing the anonymous circulars mentioned and in keeping the city disturbed, and who are the accomplices of Señor Diego Mendoza Perez or his agents in the furtherance of the anarchistic and destructive design counseled by him in his letter before mentioned. To this end the governor of the capital district shall specially make use of the alcaldes of the barrio (wards). (b) That on the discovery of the person or persons previously referred to, notice shall immediately be sent to the war department in order to try them according to the law of the high national police, and to confine them at a military post where they shall be educated, by means of work, in the cause of peace and order, and to be useful both to themselves and to society. 4. To charge the governors to proceed with great zeal and energy to carry out this resolution, and in case it is abused owing to personal grudges, the decree referring to those who make accusations falsely or through anger shall be applied to the responsible parties. 5. To charge Colombian ministers and consuls abroad to ascertain who the accomplices or agents of Señor Mendoza Perez are, and to immediately advise this department what they may learn in this connection. 6. To rouse all citizens and especially public employees in order that they shall aid the police and the national gendarmes to carry out this resolution, whose principal object is to protect the honor and the tranquillity of the citizens and to finally put an end to false alarms, professional agitators and slanderers, and also to those who make accusations falsely or through anger. All public employees must be reminded that although they do not belong to the police, the gendarmes, or the army, their duty is to aid them to preserve order as well as to make known to their superiors whether there is in the public administration any incorrect act to be corrected. Let it be published on posters and communicated by telegraph to the gov ernors, in order that they may make it known to all inhabitants of the department under their control. Issued at Bogota, August 16, 1906. MANUEL M. SANCLEMENTE. VISIT OF SECRETARY ROOT. Minister Barrett to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.] AMERICAN LEGATION, (Mr. Barrett asks if Secretary Root will accept invitation of Colombia to stop a day at Cartagena en route Panama-New York. The minister of foreign affairs will be sent to meet the Secretary on his arrival.) The Secretary of State to Minister Barrett. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, (Secretary Root states that he expects to sail from Panama on or about 24th September. He will call at Cartagena and hopes to see minister for foreign affairs and Mr. Barrett. Will give further information later.) Minister Barrett to the Secretary of State. [Telegram- Paraphrase.] AMERICAN LEGATION, (Mr. Barrett reports that the President of Colombia is much pleased with Secretary Root's willingness to stop at Cartagena.) No. 129.] Minister Barrett to the Acting Secretary of State. AMERICAN LEGATION, SIR: I have the honor to report that all arrangements are now completed for my departure from Bogota August 3 for my overland trip to Guayaquil, Ecuador, where I am to meet the Secretary of State, Mr. Root, and accompany him to Panama and thence to Cartagena, Colombia. I shall go first directly to Medellin, the capital of Antioquia; thence to Manizales, the capital of Caldas; thence to Cali, the principal city of Cauca; thence to Popayan, the capital of Cauca, and thence via Pasto, Ipiales Tulcan, Ibarra, to Quito, where I should arrive about. September 12, and then to Guayaquil. President Reyes has taken much interest in this journey, which he says will, through my reports, be of great benefit not only to the development of Colombia and Ecuador, but to the commercial opportunities and foreign financial investments of the United States. It' will entail considerable hardship and discomfort, requiring nearly forty-five days' traveling on mule back over a distance, with its variations, of 1,000 miles, but I look forward to it with interest as affording me an opportunity to study carefully an important section of South America now little known to the outside world. I have the honor to be, etc. JOHN BARRETT. Vice-Consul MacMaster to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN CONSULATE, Cartagena, Colombia, September 26, 1906. SIR: I have the honor of inclosing herewith two copies of El Porvenir, the semiofficial paper of this city, of September 25 and 26, relative to the visit made to this city by the honorable Secretary of State on the 24th instant. In the last-mentioned paper appears the speech made by our honorable Secretary, in English and in Spanish. The whole country appears to be most pleased, and the relations between the Americans resident here and the Colombians have improved greatly. With sentiments of the highest consideration. I have, etc. M. B. MACMASTER, [Inclosure No. 1.] Speech of His Excellency Vasquez-Cobo, Minister for Foreign Affairs, at a breakfast, given to Mr. Root, at Cartagena, September 24, 1906. [Translation from the Spanish.] MR. SECRETARY: Upon receiving your excellency within the confines of our heroic and glorious Cartagena, I present to you a cordial greeting of welcome, in the name of Colombia, of His Excellency the President of the Republic, and in my own. You return to your own country to enjoy merited honors and laurels after a long tour, giving a hearty embrace of friendship to our sisters, the Republics of the South, and in breaking your journey upon our burning shores we receive you as the herald of peace, of justice, and of concord with which the great Republic of the North greets the American Continent. I trust to God that these walls, the austere witnesses of our glory, will serve as a monument whereby this visit may be noted in history! The honorable Minister Barrett, the worthy and estimable representative of your excellency's Government, has just finished journeying through a large part of our vast territory; he, better than any one, will be able to tell your excellency what he has seen in our beautiful and fertile valleys and mountains, in our flourishing cities and fields, and among the five millions of lusty, highminded, peace-loving, and hard-working inhabitants, who to-day think only of peace and useful and honest toil. This is the nation that greets you to-day and with loyalty and frankness clasps the hand of her sister of the North. Mr. Secretary, upon thanking you for the honor of this visit, I fervently pray that a happy outcome may crown your efforts in the great work of American confraternity, and I drink to the prosperity and greatness of the United States, to its President, and especially to your excellency. [Inclosure No. 2.] Reply of Mr. Root. YOUR EXCELLENCY, AND GENTLEMEN: Believe, I beg you, in the sincerity of my appreciation and my thanks for the courtesy with which you have received me, and for the honor which you have shown me. When the suggestion was made that upon my return from a voyage encircling the continent of South America I should stop at Cartagena for an interview with you, sir, before returning to my own country, I accepted with alacrity and with pleasure, because it was most grateful to me to testify by my presence upon your shores to my high respect for your great country, the country of Bolivar; to my sincere desire that all questions which exist between the United States of Colombia and the United States of America may be settled peacefully, in the spirit of friendship, of mutual esteem, and with honor for both countries. Especially, also, I was glad to come to Colombia as an evidence of my esteem and regard for that noble and great man whom it is the privilege of Colombia to call her President to-dayGeneral Reyes. I have had the privilege of personal acquaintance with him, and I look upon his conduct of affairs in the chief magistracy of your Republic with the twofold interest of one who loves his fellow-men and desires the pros perity and happiness of the people of Colombia and of a personal regard and friendship for the President himself. I have been much gratified during my visit to so many of the Republics of South America to find universally the spirit of a new industrial and commercial awakening, to find a new era of enterprise and prosperity dawning in the Southern Continent. Mr. Minister and gentlemen, it will be the cause of sincere happiness to me if through the present friendly relations, based upon personal knowledge acquired here, I may do something toward helping the Republic of Colombia forward along the pathway of the new development of South America. With your vast agricultural and mineral wealth, with the incalculable richness of your domain, the wealth and prosperity of Colombia are sure to come some time. Let us hope that they will come now while we are living, in order that you may transfer to your children not the possibility but the realization of the increased greatness of your country. Let us hope that some advance of this new era of progress may come from the pleasant friendships formed to-day. While I return my thanks to you for your courtesy let me assure you that there is nothing that could give greater pleasure to the President and to the people of the United States of America than to feel that they may have some part in promoting the prosperity and the happiness of this sister Republic. I ask you to join me in drinking to the peace, the prosperity, the order, the justice, the liberty of the Republic of Colombia, and long life and a prosperous career in office to its President-General Reyes. POLITICAL AND BUSINESS CONDITIONS IN COLOMBIA. No. 26.] Minister Barrett to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN LEGATION, Bogota, January 6, 1906. SIR: I have the honor to report that, on January 1, the National Assembly of Colombia met in extraordinary session at the call of President Reyes. The principal work before it is to confirm the decrees that he has issued during the past year and approve the budgets of the various ministers of state. The most interesting feature of the meeting of this assembly is the message of President Reyes. It is a strong document, and reviews carefully the work that has been accomplished by his administration during the past year. It effectively refutes many of the arguments advanced by the opponents and critics of President Reyes that his policies have not been for the good of the country. The progress outlined is encouraging, and gives promise of a general forward movement all along the line in the material prosperity of the Republic. The discussion of railway building begun and contemplated occupies a prominent place in the message. There are more enterprises under way for the construction of railroads than is generally supposed and many new ones are being planned. Among the principal concessionaires who are planning extensive railroad building are two Americans, respectively, Alfred Bishop Mason and Henry C. Granger, of New York. In another dispatch I will report more in detail on this phase of the message. In discussing the foreign affairs a brief reference is made to the relations with the United States, of which the following is a rough translation: We have not yet arrived at an understanding with the Government of the United States of America in regard to the questions of a particular nature which we desire to settle. Our minister plenipotentiary in Washington, Señor Don Diego Mendoza, informed us at the end of last October that he had begun nego |