811f.812/914
The Panaman Chargé (Lefevre) to the Acting Secretary of State
Excellency: I am instructed by my Government to inform Your Excellency that under date of December 20, 1920, Mr. C. A. McIlvaine, Executive Secretary of the Government of the Canal Zone, sent to the Department of Foreign Relations of my country a note couched in the following terms:
“Mr. Secretary: The district engineer advises this office under date of the 16th instant that adjustment of claims is now being made to enable the taking over of the proposed reservation of 200-foot hill, east of Colon, in the Las Minas Bay region of the Republic of Panama. A description of the proposed reservation is enclosed herewith, together with two blue prints of the Las Minas Bay region on which is shown in red the area to be taken over, containing approximately 125 hectares.
To prevent the further filing of small claims by ‘squatters’ notification is hereby given of the intention of the United States Government to assume jurisdiction over the tract set forth in the attached description, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty between our respective Governments.”
Without any answer being returned to that note by the Department of Foreign Relations of Panama, because the President of the Republic had not yet had time to consider in Cabinet the grave matter involved, under date of the 30th of the same month of December, the Acting Governor of the Panama Canal, Col. Jay J. Morrow, wrote directly to the President of the Republic, Dr. Porras, another communication in which he says the following:
“My Dear Mr. President: By virtue of the provisions of Article II of the Hay-Varilla Treaty,16 I have the honor to inform you that certain lands in the Las Minas Bay region east of Colon as indicated [Page 617] on the enclosed blueprint have been taken over by the United States for purposes of defense of the Panama Canal.
The area above the mean high-water line of the tract referred to is 125 hectares, and is comprised within the boundaries of the Ensenada de las Minas de Santa Rita estate as the same is shown on the Harrison-Arosemena map of 1862. The boundaries of the water and land area taken are as follows: (here follows the description of the tract).
The owners of property or improvements to property within the area defined will be properly compensated therefor by the United States.”
So we have it that while under date of December 20, the Executive Secretary of the zone announced to the Government of Panama, the intention of the United States of acquiring certain lands for the defense of the Canal, ten days later Governor Morrow announced that the land had already been taken without any account whatever being made of the consent of the Republic of Panama.
Now Article II of the Canal Treaty provides that the Republic of Panama further grants to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of any other lands and waters outside of the ten-mile-wide zone, which may be necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of the Canal. But the Government of Panama holds that it is for the two Governments to determine in some form when a territory sought by the United States under the treaty is or is not convenient and necessary for the construction, conservation, operation, sanitation or protection of the Panama Canal, for it is impossible to suppose that a treaty may be carried into effect by one of the parties only. Neither can it be admitted that the Government of the United States is empowered to determine alone by and for itself when any part of the Panaman territory is necessary or convenient for any of the purposes above described and not only determine the question, but also take possession of that territory. Such power would, if we may say so, be monstrous and absurd in point of law, because on the one hand it cannot be admitted that one nation may, by a public treaty which guarantees its independence agree to clauses that would be tantamount to its civil death, and on the other hand the United States would have it in its power to do away totally with the Republic of Panama, if it decided by and for itself that it needs the whole of the Republic for the Canal.
The Government of Panama holds, therefore, that the taking of possession notified by the Governor of the Canal in his note of December 30 last is purely an act of force executed by representatives of the Government of the United States upon the Republic of Panama, without that Republic’s consent and in violation of the Canal Treaty; and against that act, which will not be sanctioned by the [Page 618] Government of Panama as long as no understanding of some kind shall have been reached with the Government of the United States with respect to the interpretation and application of Article II of the Canal Treaty and its correlative Articles VII and XXV, the Secretary of Foreign Relations of my country enters through me a most formal and energetic protest.
My Government also holds and I venture very respectfully to call Your Excellency’s attention to that point that no matter in what form or on what occasion stipulations of the Canal Treaty have to be applied, these matters are plainly diplomatic questions which must be handled in Panama through the American Legation and in the Department of State through this Legation and therefore it is to be hoped that the practice which has been observed on previous occasions of handling exclusively diplomatic questions through civil authorities under the War Department, such as those of the Canal Zone, will cease.
Trusting that this incident will be satisfactorily adjusted in accordance with the ideas hereinabove expressed, I avail myself [etc.]
- File translation revised.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1904, p. 543.↩