File No. 819.74/2.
The Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, December 15, 1911.
Sir: The Department is in receipt of a request from the Secretary of the Navy for a full report on the wireless telegraphic systems proposed [Page 1207] or already established on the Isthmus of Panama. You are therefore directed to investigate and report on this matter as promptly as possible.
The Government of Panama of its own volition, and without mention of any treaty provisions which might be relevant, has frequently assured your Legation that no negotiations for any form of telegraphic communication on the Isthmus would be concluded without first communicating with this Government and securing its assent. For this assurance you are referred to Mr. Hitt’s despatch No. 21 on June 30, 1910. Yet according to Mr. Campbell’s despatch No. 90 of March 1, 1911, a contract between the Government of Panama and the United Fruit Company for the erection of a wireless station at Colon was signed on December 27, 1910; and according to a despatch from the Consul at Colon, dated July 29, 1911, the United Wireless Telegraph Company of New York installed a wireless station of its own at Colon in June, 1910, the very month in which the Minister for Foreign Affairs assured Mr. Hitt that the assent of this Government would be obtained before negotiations for wireless communication on the Isthmus would be concluded.
It does not appear that the assent of this Government to either of these enterprises was ever requested, or given, or even that the Legation was approached in the matter.
In view of these facts you are directed to inquire informally and discreetly of the Minister for Foreign Affairs why the procedure contemplated in the assurance given to Mr. Hitt has not been followed by the Panaman Government.
I am [etc.]