Coffee Diplomacy

The excitable Colombian press had an anti-U.S. field day. El Tiempo talked of a "bad neighbor" policy, dredged up such old standbys as "dollar diplomacy," "manifest destiny," the "big stick." El Espectador accused the U.S. of "economic aggression." The reason for the uproar was that the U.S. and Colombia had got themselves tangled in an unseemly row over shipping coffee.

Favors Granted. The trouble began when the powerful semi-official National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia urged exporters to ship only on the eight vessels of the Great Colombia Fleet (Flota Mercante Gran Colombiana). Coffee exporters were glad to go along; they did not like the recent 25% increase in freight rates by U.S. lines. Besides, like most Colombians, they are proud of the fleet, which began operations last spring (TIME, May 5) under the joint sponsorship of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, to break what was regarded as a U.S. shipping monopoly. The Colombian Government has helped with exemption from income and excess profits taxes and from port charges.

Faced with this competition, the U.S. lines, principally Grace,* United Fruit and Lykes, cried for help. They got it from the shipping section of the U.S. State Department; the Embassy in Bogota was told to point out that Colombia was violating the 1846 treaty of commerce, friendship and navigation. Colombians knew the answer to that one: in the same treaty, the U.S. guaranteed Colombian rights over Panama. The U.S., Colombia claims, violated the treaty when Theodore Roosevelt, as he boasted, "took Panama" in 1903. /-

Stones Hurled. Bogota students made the controversy an occasion for a mass meeting. There were cries of "Down with Yankee Imperialism," "Down with Truman." Then Communists and other U.S.-baiters led the crowd downtown to the U.S. Embassy. A U.S. truck parked outside was overturned, the Embassy was stoned. The mob moved on to Grace Line offices, smashed windows and furniture until police took over.

By week's end the Colombian Government had apologized for the rioting. The Foreign Ministry, calling the controversy "important and complex," promised that a solution satisfactory to both countries would be found.

* Last year Grace carried half of Colombia's coffee exports, 5,340,310 bags; United Fruit, 711,813 bags; West Coast Lines, 333,986 bags.

/-When the U.S.-inspired revolution broke out in Panama, the U.S. cruiser Nashville and the gunboat Dixie guarded the entrance to Colon's harbor, to prevent landing of Colombian troops. The U.S. promptly recognized Panama's independence. Within a month the new republic granted the U.S. control over a ten-mile strip of land that was to become the Canal Zone.

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