No. 157.
Mr. Scruggs to Mr.
Bayard.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Bogota, April 16, 1885.
(Received May 26.)
No. 201.]
Sir: On the 14th instant I sent you a cable
dispatch, as follows:
* * * * * * *
This Government solicits the fulfillment of article 35 of the treaty
of 1846 to secure the neutrality and sovereignty of the Isthmus of
Panama. It desire that, for that purpose, some land forces be sent
to disembark on the Isthmus.
This was sent in accordance with the request contained in the note of that
date addressed to me by the Colombian minister for foreign affairs, a copy
of which, with translation, I inclose. I also inclose a copy of my reply to
the minister’s note.
I have, &c.,
[Page 210]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
201—Translation.]
Mr. Restrepo to Mr.
Scruggs.
United
States of Colombia,
Department
of Foreign Affairs,
Bogota, April 14,
1885.
Mr. Minister: I have received an order from the
President of the Republic to manifest to your excellency that the State
of Panama is in a perilous situation, viewed with reference to the
preservation of order, as well exterior as interior, a situation which
threatens the sovereignty of Colombia over that territory, since we find
it impossible to send military forces thither with the necessary
rapidity; and that the time has arrived for soliciting the intervention
of the Government which your excellency worthily represents in
accordance with article 35 of the treaty of December 12, 1846, to the
end that pending the arrival there of the national troops said
Government will undertake to maintain harmless the rights and authority
of the Colombian Government in the State of Panama.
In the hope that your excellency will have the goodness to address the
Government of the United States upon the subject of this note by the
line of telegraph via Buenaventura, now in working Order,
I gladly improve, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 201.]
Mr. Scruggs to Mr.
Restrepo.
[Extract.]
United
States Legation,
Bogota, April 15,
1885.
Mr. Secretary: In accordance with the request
contained in your excellency’s courteous note of yesterday, I have
transmitted to my Government a cable dispatch, whereof the following is
a copy:
* * * * * * *
I shall, immediately upon its receipt, communicate the response to your
excellency. Hoping the present disorders on the Isthmus may be of short
duration, and that Colombia’s sovereignty thereon may not be
involved,
I have, &c.,