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Stimson et aL Efforts by neutral statesmen of all sorts to end the Leticia trouble have been ceaseless since it began. Diplomatic notes have piled up in bales at Lima and Bogota. Last week U. S. Secretary of State Stimson rapped Peru over the knuckles with a 2,600-word note, sternly pointing out that even Peru admits the validity of the Saloman-Lozano Treaty and that should Peru use force to hold Leticia she would clearly violate her pledge under the Briand-Kellogg Pact.
Next day the Council of the League of Nations sent to Lima the sort of cablegram it itches to send to Tokyo but dares not. Peru was commanded by the Council "to refrain from any intervention by force on Colombian territory and . . . not hinder the Colombian authorities from the exercise of full sovereignty and jurisdiction in territory recognized by treaty to belong to Colombia."
In Lima, Peru's Cabinet, after sweating over the Stimson & League notes, justified themselves as follows: "The Peruvian Government is not defending the territory of Leticia but its fellow countrymen who occupy it with a view of securing its return to its former nationality, which is not a crime justifying the use of measures of extermination. . . .
"Preparations for an offensive war were initiated by Colombia, and the advance of her flotilla on the Amazon constitutes the beginning of an aggression which we cannot regard with equanimity."
A few hours before this statement was issued the Presidents of Peru and Colombia were reported about to "talk things over" by radio telephone between Lima and Bogota, with rumors strong that both countries would agree to mediation by the Government of Brazil.
* Named after beauteous Miss Leticia Smith, daughter of a onetime British vice consul at Iquitos, by her lovelorn Peruvian admirer, Engineer Charon. When Engineer Charon returned from founding Leticia he was vexed to find that Miss Smith had married an Englishman, removed to Mexico.
* In Paris, several years ago, Peru's President Sanchez Cerro (then a lieutenant colonel) argued the merits of this treaty fiercely with General Vasquez Cobo, charged that it was signed under the influence of bribes. So tart were the General's retorts that Latin friends of the peppery pair said afterward: "They almost fought a duel."