Getting Hot

COLOMBIA-PERU

The fleet which Colombia sent 5,000 mi. around the turnip-shaped top of South America and up the River Amazon (TIME, Feb. 6) lay anchored all last week off Tabatinga, a Brazilian port only five miles from Leticia, the port which Peruvian irregulars seized from Colombia last September and which Colombia intends to repossess.

Still hoping to mediate between Colombia and Peru, zealous Brazilian Foreign Minister Afranio de Mello Franco labored day & night in Rio de Janeiro to keep war from breaking out at Leticia. Striding out of Minister de Mello Franco's office after a half-hour conference, Colombian Minister Dr. Carlos Uribe Echeverri was asked how much longer Colombia's fleet would wait before striking to recover Leticia.

"It's terrifically hot up there on the Amazon River!" cried Dr. Uribe Echeverri. "There is always the danger of fever. Our fleet cannot stay anchored indefinitely."

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