2. That their rubber collection centres are surrounded by cultivated lands.
3. That these “cultivated lands” have a population of about 40,000 Indians.
4. That these Indians are being taught to improve the crude methods that were formerly used of treating the rubber.
5. That the “rubber-trees are the same as those which produce Para Fine.”
6. That the territory in their possession “contains valuable auriferous quartz and gravel and deposits of coal and other minerals.”
7. That “the exportation of rubber from the Putumayo is increasing.”
8. That “the boundary question, even should it affect politically a portion of the Putumayo territory, will not affect the legal rights of the settlers.”
The following statement, made by the Minister of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Colombia, which I translate from the Jornal do Comercio of Manaos, Brazil, of June 3, 1908, gives an idea of how Colombia views the proceedings of the “civilising company”:—
“The companies that are exploiting the adjacent regions of the Putumayo to-day have no legal existence in Colombia, but, on the contrary, are violating many of our legal dispositions and are even committing crimes for which our laws provide penal punishment. When the time comes, the Government of Colombia will not only refuse them protection, but will punish the agents of those companies that are responsible for criminal acts with all the rigours of the law.”
They also omit to state the following important and interesting facts:—