PERU-COLOMBIA: Jungle Festival

In a nondescript structure of rustic thatch pitched amid jungle creepers on the upper reaches of South America’s great, turgid Amazon the authority and prestige of the League of Nations have been held higher than anywhere else on earth for exactly one year.

The white flag of the League flying in the wilderness meant that Colombia and Peru had stopped fighting over the district of Leticia and were letting a League Commission hold this uncomfortable stake while their white-spatted diplomats haggled out terms of peace in the luxury of Rio de Janeiro. Last week the League flag came down with honor amid a rousing chorus of “Vivas!”

Peruvian irregulars raped Leticia from Colombia in the first place (TIME, Feb. 6, 1933. et seq.). The real trouble has been that the Peruvian Government, while not overanxious to keep the ravished province, found the rape excessively popular in Peru and for months did not know how to let Leticia go without shame to Peru’s virile Latin “honor.” Only the vast tact of President Olaya Herrera of Colombia and General Vasquez Cobo whom he sent to overawe the Peruvians in Leticia, made a settlement without undue bloodshed possible. Swamp fever did most of the killing. Tall, patient President Olaya Herrera and short, jovial General Vasquez Cobo embraced enthusiastically as the diplomatic squabble ended in a virtuous decision to return Leticia to Mother Colombia. In a jungle clearing last week a Colombian trimotored plane waited to take out the League Commission. They struck their white flag and up amid huzzas went the bright gold, blue and red of Colombia. “Contact!” cried the pilot and the tri-motor roared. Said Guillermo Giraldez, Spanish President of the League Commission, as he took off: “An historic occasion! A festival of Peace.”