File No. 2491/96.
The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé Weitzel.
Washington, December 18, 1909.
Sir: The department is in receipt of your dispatch, No. 599, of the 2d instant, in which you report in answer to the department’s telegram of the 30th ultimo, the result of your informal inquiry as to whether the Government of Panama is now prepared to instruct its minister at Washington in the matter of the boundary controversy with Costa Rica. You say: [Quotes paragraphs 2 to 6 of Minister Weitzel’s dispatch]. You will inform the Government of Panama that this Government has not, by any of its communications, undertaken to define or limit the boundary question or questions arising under the Loubet award which are to be submitted to arbitration, but that the [Page 804] defining of the question or questions is a matter for agreement solely between the plenipotentiaries of Panama and Costa Rica; and that this Government does not undertake to guarantee acceptance of the arbitrator’s award as conclusive or binding, which also is a matter for both Panama and Costa Rica to agree to, in their protocol of submission.
In a note, dated the 4th instant, the department suggested to Mr. Arosemena, the Panaman minister, that a conference be held at the department on January 15, 1910, or soon after, between him and Mr. Anderson, the minister of Costa Rica on special mission, and the Secretary of State, to consider and discuss the existing situation fully, to reach, if possible, the basis of a protocol agreement formulating the question at issue, and to take the other steps necessary for the submission of the controversy to Chief Justice Fuller as arbitrator.
The same suggestion was made to Mr. Anderson, who promptly accepted the proposal and expressed his readiness to take part in the conference.
Mr. Arosemena answered that he had no instructions from his Government to deal with the boundary question, but that he had informed his Government of the department’s proposal, and he expressed the hope that the conference would take place.
In its note, in reply, of the 16th instant, the department informed Mr. Arosemena of Mr. Anderson’s acceptance, and said that it awaited the receipt from him of a note which, it is earnestly hoped, will advise the department that he has been empowered to sign an agreement for arbitration so ample as to include all the questions in dispute.
I am, etc.,