Dr. Herran to Mr. Hay.
Washington, D. C, November 7, 1903.
Excellency: I acknowledge the reception of your excellency’s note of the 6th instant, inclosing a copy of the telegram sent on the same day to the legation of the United States at Bogotá by the Department of State.
[Page 244]In that telegram your excellency refers to the relations already entered into by the Government of the United States of America with the Colombian rebels who on the evening of the 3d usurped the power in the capital of the Colombian Department of Panama and imprisoned the lawful civil and military authorities.
Your excellency will undoubtedly receive the reply of the Colombian Government through the same channel that was used to forward the notice of which your excellency was pleased to send me a copy, but, in the meanwhile, I am discharging a duty by lodging in advance with your excellency, in the name of my Government, a solemn protest against the attitude assumed in the Department of Panama by the Government of the United States to the injury of Colombia’s rights and in disaccord with the stipulations of article 35 of the still existing treaty of 1846–1848 between Colombia and the United States of America.
I reiterate, etc.,