File No. 819.1052/53.
The Secretary of State to Minister Price.
Washington, November 19, 1915.
Sir: The Department has received your No. 658, of the 29th ultimo, with which you enclose a copy of a letter from the Governor of the Panama Canal regarding the action to be taken in the event that it is agreed to disarm the national police force of Panama of large arms and strictly enforce the law against carrying concealed deadly weapons.
In reply I have to refer you to the Department’s instruction No. 201 of the 5th instant, and to say that if the reply of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of Panama is favorable you may proceed to obtain the concurrence of the Government of Panama in Governor Goethals’ plan for the safe-keeping of the rifles of the Panama Police, in the event that the Government of Panama should [Page 1235] be unwilling to sell them as suggested in the Department’s instruction above mentioned.
I am [etc.]