File No. 711.21/239.
Minister Thomson to the Secretary of State.
Bogotá, March 24, 1914, noon.
In a counter-memorandum to my memorandum based on your March 13, 7 p.m., the Minister for Foreign Affairs withdraws demand for equal treatment for merchant marine, and for the substitution of the word “convenient” for “necessary.” He proposes, however, that the indemnity shall consist of twenty-five millions to be paid within six months after the exchange of ratifications, together with an additional five millions to be paid within a year after that date, which sum will be assigned to the sanitation and improvement of Cartagena and Buena Ventura. He also submitted the following as a second paragraph to Article IV.
As a condition of this recognition, the United States agrees, immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, to take the necessary steps to obtain from the Government of Panama the despatch of a duly accredited agent to conclude with the Government of Colombia the negotiation of a treaty of peace and friendship which when completed may render possible the establishment, in the usual form, of diplomatic relations between Colombia and Panama and which shall comprise a settlement relative to the internal and external debts of both countries, all in accordance with the principles of law recognized and the antecedents accepted by Colombia and Panama.
In view of your instruction to the effect that the offer of twenty-five millions is to be considered final as to amount, and inasmuch as I perceive no reason to change my opinion that a settlement can be reached on that sum, it is my intention again to repeat the assurance that if Colombia will agree in advance to accept it, the offer will be raised to twenty-five millions.
As regards the second paragraph proposed for Article IV, the Department will note that it is in substitution and amplification of the one upon which we are now agreed. Colombia does not propose a mutual release of obligations. She desires to have it made clear that the Colombia-Panama treaty, which the United States will lend its good offices to bring about, shall provide both for diplomatic relations between her and Panama and for the settlement of their respective obligations in accordance with antecedents accepted by them both. (A similar decision of obligations was arranged between New Granada, Ecuador and Venezuela, the three states that formed the original Republic of Colombia.)
[Page 153]I shall be glad if the Department may see its way to accept this proposal, as I have no doubt whatever that with this final concession the matter will be speedily and satisfactorily concluded.