810.79611 Pan American Airways, Inc./689: Telegram
The Chargé in Peru (Mayer) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:25 p.m.]
201. My telegram number 188, October 4, 3 p.m. Captain Harris, local representative of Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated, has just given me a copy of a contract between his company and Scadta signed here October 18th. This agreement is for an indefinite period subject to cancellation by either side on sixty days’ notice “for a serious cause which may affect the privileged position of Scadta in Colombia on the one part and the privileged position of Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated in Peru on the other.”
- 2.
- The essence of the contract, in addition to this important admission by Scadta vis-à-vis Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated position here, is the mutual agreement that Scadta exclusively turns over all Colombian air mail for Peru to Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated at Buenaventura and Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated exclusively turns over all Peruvian air mail for the interior of Colombia to Scadta at the same place.
- 3.
- Harris feels as I do that this contract satisfactorily defines the relations between Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated and Scadta and should mean that the latter will cease its previously continuous attacks on Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated’s position in Peru.
- 4.
- It may be safely assumed that Von Bauer would never have entered into this arrangement if he had not been unsuccessful—which he frankly told Harris—in efforts to interest the Peruvian Government in opposition to Pan American-Grace Airways Incorporated’s position here. I feel therefore, as I have previously expressed to the Department, that we owe a debt of genuine gratitude to President Leguia for his staunch stand in favor of American aviation interests here. I shall take the first opportunity practicable to inform the President of the fact of this agreement and convey to him again the appreciation of our Government in the sense indicated above.
- 5.
- A copy and translation of the contract will go forward in the next mail.
Repeated to Bogotá and Santiago.