File No. 2491/110.
The Secretary of State to the Minister of Panama on Special Mission.1
Washington, February 2, 1910.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that, for several reasons, the Department of State deemed it advisable not to delay further the sending of a telegram to our legation at Panama in reference to the proposed boundary arbitration of your country with Costa Rica. Accordingly, the department telegraphed yesterday, February 1,2 instructing our chargé d’affaires at Panama to call the attention of the Government of Panama to the fact that the department’s telegram to him of December 7 and its instruction of December 18 made it clear that there was no intention to limit the boundary issue between Panama and Costa Rica to the mere interpretation of the Loubet award; that the United States Government thinks, and has said, and now repeats that the crucial matter to be submitted to arbitration is the respective contentions of the two Republics as to the true boundary line; that by the foregoing statement of the real issue this Government merely indicates its friendly opinion and disclaims any desire to influence the free agreement of the two Republics of the course of the proposed arbitration; that the responsibility for the arbitration and for the success or failure of the pending [Page 805] negotiations must rest with the two Republics. But that this Government nevertheless deems it proper to say that in view of all the facts it has felt some degree of surprise upon learning the tenor of the powers of the special minister of Panama, which are not full powers as designated in certain passages thereof but powers restricted to the negotiation of a protocol founded upon the strict acceptance first and above all by both contracting parties of the Loubet award, and further hampered, it seems, by special instructions which limit his freedom and independence of action; that this Government respectfully but earnestly represents that such are not full powers, are not adequate to the task in hand, and are not equivalent to the unrestricted powers of the special minister of Costa Rica, and therefore should be amplified by telegraph to secure progress in the negotiations. That this Government further feels that its own attitude, assumed before the special minister of Panama was accredited, shows that it believed full powers were needed and were confidently awaited in order to settle the real and broad question as to the true permanent boundary, and that the unavailing negotiations with Costa Rica for nearly 10 years last past had made it clear beyond peradventure that this long-standing controversy can not be settled by insisting on a mere interpretation of the Loubet award; that during the said period Costa Rica has insisted that the Loubet award was void in part at least on the ground of ultra petita or impaired or vitiated by ambiguity and uncertainty, and that this contention was not in violation of the original agreement of submission which contemplated an award within the defined limit of the claims and not technically void for uncertainty; that this Government represents further, and suggests that, considering these facts, the terminal points of the Loubet award should now be finally agreed to as accepted by both parties—namely, Punta Burico and Punta Mona—and that the boundary drawn from one to the other should be submitted and determined without restriction in the light of the Loubet award as well as in the light of all the allegations, contentions, evidence, and arguments submitted by both parties; that admitting, as all must do, a moral obligation flowing from the Loubet award, the question submitted by this Government to the Panaman Government is whether, considering the long practical deadlock of this controversy and the past unyielding attitude of both Governments, it is not now most important and indeed necessary to dwell upon’ and emphasize the moral and practical importance of peace and good neighborhood and the amicable settlement of a historic controversy which has been and this Government feels will evidently continue to be rendered impossible in case the acceptance of the Loubet award be insisted upon; that, finally, this Government feels itself entitled to urge the importance of a prompt, practical, and final settlement of the matter by reason of the large property interests of its citizens located in the disputed territory, which are unfavorably affected by the ambiguous and unsettled status of the boundary question, and by reason of its guaranty under the treaty of 1903 with Panama of the independence of that Republic, which gives it the right to know as speedily and definitely as may be the true boundaries and the exact extent of the territory the independence of which it has guaranteed.
Accept, etc.,