The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-12-16
SERIOUS DANGERS AVOIDED.
COLOMBIA MIGHT HAVE CAUSED
 4 TERRIBLE WAR.

Assistant state Secretary Loomis Points Ont the Possible Results of That
 Country's DupIicity-Francs Would
 Never Have Permitted the PiiIage of Thousands of Her People Through she Looting of the French Company
 of s4O,O0o, o,oo0-Panama Might Have
 Furnished che Spark to Set Half the
 World in Flame.
 New York, Dec. 15.-The conditions which resulted in the recent establish merlt of the republic of Panama were discussed tonight at the banquet Of the Quill club held at the Hotel Manhattan by Francis E. Loomis, assistant secre- tary of state of the United States, and M. Phillipe Bunau- -Varilla, minister for Panama. The Rev. E. S. ripple, D. D., president of the club, presided, and among those present were Albert shaw, editor Of the Review of Reviews, and President Frissell Of the Hampton 1n- stitute. s,g5.y 4., .--
 Assistant Secretary Loonis in pre- senting his views on Panama. and our relations with other Latin-Amerlcan countries. said in part:
 "The rejection of the treaty at Bogo- la was an unfriendly act, from the view point of international law. Colombia appealed to us to enter into treaty to build canal. the treaty to was nego- tiated with her in a most liberal spirit on our part. and was then rejected by the Colombian government and con- gress without debate. The executive branch of the government which had negotiated it, did not try to secure It's ratification. It became evident, short ly after the opening of the Colombian congress in June, that there was not the least intention of ratifying the Hay Harran treaty The belief seems to have been widely current in Bogota that the United States could not or would not build canal by any other than the Panama route. It occurred to certain men in Bogota that the United States could be made to pay s20,000,000 or $25,OOO,OO0, instead of s1O,ooo,o00, or of better still, as has been disclosed by recent published official correspondence. if the treaty were rejected or no action taken upon it. and the whole matter postponed for another year, the conces- sion of the present French canal com pany having expired by that time, the renewal of that concession would be de- clared invalid and all the rights, privi- leges and work of the French Canal company be practically conf1scated and disposed Of to the United States for < $40, ,O0O, ,O00,00O, in addition to the $10,000,- 900 as proposed. and the annuity of a quarter of million. This was a ra- diant and alluring prospect and the temptation proved too strong.
 ssThis particular phase of canal his- tory and the possible consequences of the action of the Colombian government in rejecting the treaty have not been exhaustively discussed. If you will con- slider 1t carefully you will see that out of the conditions created by the failure of the Colombians to ratify the treaty and their deeply grounded belief that they could invalidate the renewal of the concession of the French company and sell that concession to the United States for $40,000,000, out of these possibilities came one os our strongest needs for prompt and courageous action when the opportunity was offered by the revolu- tion in Panama on November g.
 Reflect for moment on the grave possibilities which confronted this gov ernment as it peered into the future I,4 @, iYafc for the many serious complications and contingencies which the president fore saw. If the revolution in Panama had not occurred. if the American people guided by the opinions of it's most learn ed, efficient and highly trusted en- gineers, continued to think the Nicara- qua route an impracticable one, if the people and congress of this country had insisted that we wait for year or SC until such time as the politicians at Bo. gotta were ready to negotiate a new canal treaty, and in the meantime their congress had declared invalid the might have happened on the isthnus? might have happened on the isthmus? may safely assert, without fear of con. tradiction by any well informed person that the RONSTIlHlGllG O1 nIdllCe WOult not have stood serenely by and witness ed the pilIage of thousands of her peo ple through the act which Bogota politi clans devised for the footing of tht French company of $40,000,0O0.
 saThe moment that the cable flashed from Bogota to Paris the astounding news that the extension of the Frencl concession was cancelled, F'rencl squadron from Martinique would hay, borne down upon the isthmus and per haps landed marines at Colon and sen them across the isthmus to Panama and along the line of the canal to pro tect the interests and property o French citizens There would, in al probability, have been an armed con ffict between France and Colombia. O France at least would have felt hersel compelled to hold the isthmus for a loni period. This would have wrought i'm mediately and poignantly upon the sen sihilities of the American people in re spect to the Monroe doctrine and w should no doubt have found ourselve viewing France with annoying appre f1ension. The French warships migh easily have been followed by those c England and Holland and Panama lik the Balkan states, might well have bee expected to furnish the spark to SC hals the world in flames.
 '"This situation, which have de