The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-01-10
SITUATION RESULTS FROM
 HAYS CURT NOTE ID REYES
Colombian Agent Has cabIed His Gov ernment That There Is No
 Change In Attitude of
 the United States.
BY PATTERSON srEALEY.

Washington, January s-(Special. )-The
 sudden determination of General Rafael Reyes, the Colombian agent, to depart from Washington Is understood to have
 been caused by sharp exchange of cor
 respondence between Reyes and Score
 tary of State Hay during the past few
 days.
 Reyes being unable to accomplish any,
 thing for his government, wrote Hay on
 Friday asking that his correspondence be
 made public, with that of the secretary.
 The letter was not worded very diplo-
 matically and Is said to have rather of-
 fended Hay, who replied in curt note to the Colombian.
 Reyes, therefore, seeing the useiessness of further correspondence with Hay. ca-
 bled his government that he had failed
 to bring about any change in the situa-
 ton and would return as soon as his
 health would permit. It is thought prob
 able that the Colombian government will
 now start its troops for Panama and at- tempt to win back the seeding state. Should this course be followed the inevit-
 able result will be clash with the Unit ed States marines.
 GENERAL REYES WILL CONSULT A SPECIALIST.
 Washington. January s-(By Associst-
 cd Press. )-convinced of the determina-
 ton of the United States not to retrace 2 s'sp on the isthmus, and of the conse- auent failure of his mission General
 Reyes, tts Colombian special envoy, is
 ready to leave Washington. Indeed. he
 informed the Associated Press at noon to-
 day that he would leave for Baltimore at o'clock to consult a specialists. and
 that his return was uncertain. He did
 not take that train. and at a late hour
 tonight was at his hotel
 when seen tonight he said he was yet hoping Tor an answer to his last request that the correspondence be sent to the
 senate and that he could not say definite
 ly when he would leave Washington He
 added that when the time came for going
 he would officially take leave of the Pres
 ident and other officials with whom he has come in contact
 He has not yet decided whether he will
 sail from New York on the next steamer for Colombia on January IT or whether he will go to aPris on private business In long cablegram which General Reyes has dispatched to General Marro- quin he has reviewed the negotiations at Washington and informed the Boeota
 government that after doing everything in
 his power to save something from the
 wreck he has failed.
 No Course Announced. General Reyes has not supplemented this announcement with a word of advice as to the course his government shall pursue. Naturally he expects, in view of
 the high feeling prevailing in Colombia,
 that it will be very difficult to restrain his people longer.
 Throughout the negotiations General Reyes brought to bear all the pressure In his power to prevent rupture between
 the Washington and Bogota governments,
 and he Is gratified his people have kept their word and not declared war while there was hope of affecting a settlement
 by diplomacy.
 This means having failed, General Reyes
 does not feel that it Is his mission furtter to advise the Bogota government as to It's course. Up to noon, General Reyes last
 note to the state department requiring that his presentation of the Colombian cause be forwarded to the senate. had not | been answered.
 | It Is stated that the request of General Reyes was automatically worded. and that in addition, the note stated his req | son for asking this favor from the Wash | ington government
 Treaty Under Consideration. In substance they were in view of the fact that the treaty was under consider alton by the American senate, hostile to the interests of his country. The Bogota government earnestly desired that ! its side of the case should be presented, that the senate might have all the infor- mation bearing on the subject. and might know the reason of Colombia for pro- | testing before the treaty is finally passed upon.
 | General Reyes thinks that in this way l the senate will be better able to reach fair decision in the matter. General Reyes can suggest no means by which Colombia and Panama can settle their differences. He thinks 1t possible that the dispatch of a special envoy to Bogota from this government might result sat isfactorily and he suggested today that Minister Bowen at Caracas, or Minister Buchanan might be able to bring about solution of the problem.
 It was learned today that General Reyes has seen number of adminis- tration senators during his stay here among them being Senators Lodge, Spooner and Ellxins.