PART IV-b. PAPERS SUBMITTED RELATING TO THE HAY-CONCHA NEGOTIATIONS. LIST OF CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO THE HAY-CONCHA NEGOTIATIONS IN 1902. From Colombian legation, March 31, 1902. (Not included. 611, 57th Cong., 1st sess.) Printed in H. Doc. From same, March 31, 1902. (Not included. Printed in H. Doc. 611, 57th Cong., 1st sess.) To same, April 5, 1902. V From same, April 18, 1902. To same, April 21, 1902. 1st sess.) From same, April 23, 1902. To same, July 18, 1902. (Not included. Printed in H. Doc. 611, 57th Cong., (Not included. Printed in H. Doc. 611, 57th Cong., (Not included. Printed in H. Doc. 611, 57th Cong., From same, September 22, 1902. To same, October 28, 1902. From same, November 11, 1902. From same, November 11, 1902. To same, November 18, 1902. From same, November 22, 1902. No. 4.] Señor José VICENTE CONCHA, etc. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 5, 1902. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st ultimo, expressing certain of the conditions under which Colombia is willing to grant to the United States the right to construct the Panama Canal. I have the honor to say in reply that, as I have orally stated to you, this important matter is having earnest consideration. Accept, etc., [Copy-Translation.] JOHN HAY. LEGATION OF COLOMBIA, Washington, D. C., April 8, 1902. Mr. SECRETARY: By express orders of my Government I have the honor to address your excellency for the purpose of entering a statement and a protest in regard to the projected canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, over what has been styled the Nicaragua route, in so far as the said project may affect the sovereign rights of Colombia in the event of its including, as is to be presumed, territory that the Republic of Colombia has always held to be her own; and I particularly address your excellency by reason of the present pendency in legislative houses of the United States of a bill authorizing your Government to acquire the necessary zone and to carry on the above-mentioned work in territory that may, in part, come within the foregoing description. The Government that I represent, adhering to its traditional and constant position on this point, desires to reaffirm its rights, as it has done in the course of the last century, and to recite again the grounds upon which it rests this affirmation by giving a succinct statement of its titles and a history of the antecedents of the question. Colombia Mosquitia, which lies in the Province of Veragua as far as Cape Gracia a Dios, always was, after the year 1509, integral part of the "Reino de Tierra firme" (Isthmus of Panama), then of the vice royalty of Santa Fe or New Granada, with occasional and transitory dependency on the captancies of Cuba and Guatemala, until the 20th of November, 1803, when a royal order, dated in San Lorenzo, finally restored part of the Mosquito Coast to the vice royalty. Evidence of this is found in the capitulations for the conquest and colonization of the Province of Veragua and in Laws IV and IX of the Indies. Throughout the colonial administration, from 1803 and on, the Government of the vice royalty constantly exercised jurisdiction over that territory as proved, among other documents, by the blockade decreed by the general of the Army of Spain in 1815, when Cape Gracias a Dios is described as the extreme point of the coast of the "Nuevo Reyno." In the first years of the independence the Government of New Granada exercised jurisdiction over the Mosquito Coast, as evidenced by its decrees of April 19 and November 22, 1822. In 1823, by reason of the occupation of the mouths of the San Juan River and adjacent rivers of the San Andres Archipelago by a Chilean privateer, Colombia made representations in vindication of her rights to the Republic of Chile, which disavowed the acts of the privateer. In 1824 the Vice President of New Granada issued a decree declaring "illegal any enterprise for the purpose of colonizing any point on the Mosquito Coast between Cape Gracias a Dios and the Chagres River." In 1825 the legations of Colombia to England and to Central America protested against the concession, without the assent of Colombia, for the construction of a canal that should come in contact with the Colombian Mosquito Coast. In 1826 the Congress of Colombia passed the law, No. 6a, of May 1, enacting provisions regarding Mosquito natives. In 1833 the Government of New Granada issued and published a circular relative to commerce on the Darien and Mosquito Coasts. In 1838, when the opening of an interoceanic canal by the way of the San Juan River and Lake Nicaragua was under consideration, under the auspices of Hille the King of the Netherlands, the executive power made the pertinent protest, and on the following year the minister of foreign relations of New Granada, under date of January 7, addressed the Government of Central America by sending it an argumentative protest, in which he declared in the name of the Republic that "if the intent is to carry out the project of an interoceanic waterway through the mouths of the San Juan, the Government of New Granada will oppose it and avail itself of all the means afforded by international law." In 1843 the legation of Colombia at London laid before the English Government a protest denouncing the acts of the war frigates Tweed and Charybdis on the Mosquito Coast as an infringement on the sovereign rights of New Granada over the said territory. This attitude was maintained by the New Granadian Government throughout the following years, during which the minister of Colombia at London repeatedly asserted before the Government of Great Britain the rights of New Granada on the Mosquito Coast. In 1890 the territorial concession granted by the Republic of Nicaragua for the excavation of an interoceanic canal called forth the note of the ministry of foreign relations of Colombia to that of the said Republic, in which it is declared that Colombia holds perfect titles establishing her sovereign rights over the territory known as the "Mosquito Coast" up to Cape Gracias a Dios, and renewed the protest made on the other occasions above mentioned. In May, 1894, the Colombian Government once more renewed its protests respecting the sovereignty and dominion of the Mosquito territory, and proposed to the Government of Nicaragua that a tribunal of arbitration be constituted to pass upon the dispute herein adverted to, but that Government did not see fit to assent to the proposition, and in so doing Colombia did not renounce her indisputable rights in any way. The Government of Colombia, therefore, deems it necessary to put it once more on record, through me, that if any concession in ownership or usufruct be made in the Mosquito territory by a country other than Colombia it is to be understood as being granted on the condition that the rights of third parties, save those that she claims to be perfect, over that region shall not be prejudiced thereby. Í avail myself, etc., Hon. JOHN HAY, No. 6.] JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA. Secretary of State of the United States. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, April 18, 1902. Señor DON JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA, Etc. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 8th instant, making "protest in regard to the projected canal between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans over what has been styled the Nicaragua route, in so far as the project may affect the sovereign rights of Colombia in the event of its including territory which she holds to be her own." In limiting this answer to the acknowledgment of the receipt of your note, the Government of the United States reserves, and with out prejudice, its entire freedom to make such answer as it may find proper should the occasion arise for it to do so. No. 8.] Accept, etc., JOHN HAY. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Señor DON JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA, Etc. SIR: I beg leave to refer to the proposal made to this Government by the Republic of Colombia, through your excellency, on March 31 and April 18, 1902 (with the accompanying expository letters), agreed to by me on April 21 last under the conditions therein stated, and confirmed by your further favor two days later; also to the law of the Congress of the United States upon this subject, approved June 28. 1902. You are aware, I am quite sure, of the reasons for amendment of the proposed treaty; and without affecting the respective engagements referred to, and which shall continue in full force unless we otherwise agree, I submit and propose various amendments to the proposed treaty, which I have embodied in the complete draft herewith delivered. I am also sure, my dear sir, that you fully appreciate the necessity for very prompt action. Accept, etc., [Translation.] JOHN HAY. LEGATION OF COLOMBIA, Washington, D. C., July 19, 1902. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge to your excellency the receipt of the note dated yesterday, which is accompanied by the modifications that the Government of your excellency proposes to the memorandum from this legation, dated April 18, of the present year. In reply to the said communication, I have the honor to inform your excellency that I hastened to transmit to my Government the aforesaid modifications by telegraph and by means of a special dispatch bearer, to request special instructions regarding them, since they affect substantially the treaty that was proposed by the undersigned. As soon as my Government transmits the instructions requested, I shall have the honor of giving to your excellency the formal reply in the matter. I repeat to your excellency my expressions of high and distinguished consideration. Hon. JOHN HAY, JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA. Secretary of State of the United States of America, Señor Don JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA, etc. Department of State. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, MY DEAR MR. MINISTER: I regret to say that the clerk in copying the canal treaty draft omitted, by clerical error in the typewritten copy of the draft which Mr. Hay handed to you on the 18th instant, the first paragraph in Article XIII, page 16. This omitted paragraph reads as follows: The United States shall have authority to protect and make secure the canal, as well as railways and other auxiliary works and dependencies, and to preserve order and discipline among the laborers and other persons who may congregate in that region, and to make and enforce such police and sanitary regulations as it may deem necessary to preserve order and public health thereon, and to protect navigation and commerce through and over said canal, railways, and other works and dependencies from interruption or damage. I have had pages 16 and 17 of the draft recopied to include this omitted paragraph. This insertion involves no addition or change in the original draft of the treaty, the paragraph having been in the early drafts and omitted from this one only by inadvertence. As you will see, it is necessary to complete the article. I have to request that you substitute the inclosed pages 16 and 17, which contain the omitted paragraph as above explained, for the pages 16 and 17 now attached to your draft. Except for the addition of this paragraph the pages 16 and 17 inclosed herewith for attachment to your draft are identical with the ones for which they are to be substituted. I am, etc., DAVID J. HILL, Acting Secretary. [Translation.] LEGATION OF COLOMBIA, Washington, D. C., September 22, 1902. SIR: I have the honor of addressing your excellency with the object of informing you that there was received last night at this legation a cablegram from the governor of the Department of Panama in which he asks that rectifications of various reports published in this country about recent events in that Department concerning the naval forces of the United States and American corporations holding interests therein be laid before the Department of State over which you preside. These rectifications may be summarized as follows: (a) There has been no interruption whatsoever in the transit over the Panama Railroad. The governor of the department directed that trains be detained for a few minutes on entering the cities of Panama and Colon for a brief inspection and to prevent a repetition of an attack by rebel forces such as that which took place in the city of Colon last year, but there was no interruption in the transit of the railroad, caused by the Colombian authorities, neither for a day nor for an hour. (b) The Government of Colombia has not omitted to guarantee, in an effective manner, the right of way or transit across the Isthmus of Panama, under the obligation placed upon it by section 1 of article 35 of the treaty concluded in 1846 between the Republic of New Granada and the United States of America, nor has anything happened to interfere with the said freedom of transit. |