Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1904-01-19
STATES AND COLOMBIA.

As has been stated in the Gazette,
President Roosevelt transmitted to the
Senate yesterday additional correspon-
dence touching the relations OF the
United States with Colombia and Pana-
ma covering the period from December
go, 1908, to January 6 last.
A statement of grievances on the part
of Colombia was presented to the State
Department by General Reyes on De-
cember 23. General Reyes says that
the course of the United States had
worked deep injury to Colombia, and he
cited the treaty of 1916 as showing that
the independence and sovereignty of
Colombia was to be maintained intact
between the two governments. General
Reyes said with reference to the Hay
Herran treaty that the same course was
followed in Bogota IS Vas pursued in
Washington. II the treaty, he said,
had been rejected in Washington, the
disappreyal would have Involved no
grievance for Colombia, and that the
Colombian Congress, in its d~isapproval
OF the treaty, simply exercised a vested
right. This action, be maintained, did
not disqualify the Colombian govern
ment for the conclusion of another
treaty.
= In speaking of the action of the Col
ombian Congress in its efforts to amend
the treaty General Reyes says II firmly
believe that it would have approved the
convention with amendments that would
probably have. been acceptable to the
United States had not the American
Minister at Bogota repeatedly declared
in the most positive manner that his
government would reject any amend
ments that might be offered"
General Reyes says that ''before the
coup de main, which proclaimed the in
dependence of the isthmus, took place
at Panama, there were in Washington
agents of the authors of that coup in con
ference with high parsonage sclothed With
official character, as is asserted by repu-
table American newspapers. | have re-
ceiyed information 10 the effect that n
bank in New York opened a consider
able credit in their favor, with a know
ledge of the general use for which il was
intended, even though unaware that it
was to be applied, in part, to the brib-
cry Of a large part of the garrison at
Panama"
Before the news was divulged that q
revolution was about TO break out on the
isthmus, General Reyes says that Ameri-
can cruisers, which reached their desti-
nation precisely on the evening Of the
movement, were blowing the waters Of
the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. A
United States military officer, he says,
stopped the railway from carrying to
Panama, as it was under obligation to
do, a battalion Of troops from Bogota,
which had just arrived at Colon Sat the
very time when its arrival in that city
would have impeded or suppressed any
revolutionary attempt"
'The Panama rev~Olutionists." con-
tinues General Reyes, "were counseled
by spectators of several countries who
had assumed the direction of affairs"
and he asserts that thousands Of the in
habitants of Panama condemned the ser
a~ratists' movement.
'The true character of the new Stateo OF
Panama." says General Reyes, sis re-
vealed in the fact that it came into ex-
istence by a coup de main effected by the
winning over of troops, valorous without
doubt, but who have fought against no
one, assaulted no intrenchment, captured
no fort, c%ontenting themselves with put
ting in prison the constituted authorities.
\ \ \ Sad, indeed, is the fate of my
country, condemned at times to suffer
calamities from its own revolutions, and
al others TO witness the unexpected attacts
of a powerful but friendly state, which
for the first time beaks its honored tradi-
tons of respect for right-especially
the right of the weak"
Secretary Hay resents all the charges
made by the Colombian Minister, but
fails to disprove them according to many
who have followed up the history Of re-
cent developments on the i,thmus.