COLOMBIAN POSITION VALID

"It is necessary to understand political conditions in Colombia to grasp the the position of that country in international affairs," declared Phanor J. Eder, LL.B., in a lecture in Emerson J yesterday morning. "Colombia is practically an oligarchy. A few thousand people in the country control public opinion absolutely. Those people are very sensitive, and this must be taken into consideration in dealing with them. It is almost impossible for us to conceive a people with no political education, but the Colombians have none. In their early years they get none of that social education which is the real foundation of all political education. All that is non-existent there.

"The Colombians say that we violated the Treaty of 1846 when we acquired the Canal Zone in 1903. To my mind there has been no effective answer to this. The Treaty of 1846 provided that we should guarantee the neutrality of Panama and should guarantee the sovereignty of Colombia there, in return for which we were to get important commercial concessions. History shows that we repeatedly reassured Colombia that the treaty would be adhered to, and in the late' seventies we told the European powers that any interference in Colombia affairs would be considered obnoxious by the United States.

"However, there is no reason to disbelieve President Roosevelt's denial that he did not instigate the revolution in Panama. What happened is this. (I am in a position to know, since my father-in-law was one of the men who financed the revolt): When the first treaty with the United States was rejected by the Colombian Congress, the business men of Panama, many of them foreigners, were afraid that the Canal would not be built, so they started a separist move- ment; it was not a popular uprising. Envoys were sent to the United States to obtain aid, but they met with no encouragement. Discouraged, they went to New York. Bueno Varella, a journalist, gave them encouragement. He told them to start the revolt and they would get help from the United States, but he was merely guessing. They revolted, and United States warships were sent to preserve order. President Roosevelt, being a man who never goes around a table if he can jump over it, seized the opportunity for acquiring the Canal Zone. The Treaty of 1846 was clearly violated, and the Colombians naturally resent it.

"I think we were justified from a domestic point of view," said Mr. Eder in closing, "but I also think that we should recognize this as a violation of treaty rights, and we should be willing to make reparation. It is necessary to preserve the good relations with South America. If not, they will think our treaties scraps of paper. The treaty with Colombia should be ratified by the Senate. It is not a party measure but concerns our whole South American policy.