File No. 15778/3–4.
Chargé Weitzel to
the Secretary of State.
American Legation,
Panama, October 1,
1908.
No. 360.]
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith
inclosure No. 1, a memorandum containing a brief statement of the facts
of an encounter between sailors from the Buffalo
and natives of Panama, which took place at about midnight Monday the
28th instant in the city of Panama, and which resulted in the fatal
stabbing of Charles Rand, boatswain’s mate. Rand died at Ancon Hospital
early Wednesday morning and was buried the same day at Ancon Cemetery.
An armed escort was in attendance, permission for the landing having
been granted by the foreign office on my application.
The deceased was a man of quiet and peaceful disposition, and was
regarded by his superior officers as the most competent enlisted man on
board.
Enough of the facts have already been ascertained to justify the
assertion that the conduct of the police was in the highest degree
[Page 473]
reprehensible before, during,
and after the incipient riot. Because of their sympathy and complicity
with the assailants, and further because of the change of administration
which takes place to-day, there is going to be considerable difficulty
in obtaining a vigorous prosecution of the offenders, several of whom
are under arrest.
Mr. Guy ant, the deputy consul general, and Mr. Ehrman, the vice consul
general in charge of the office, are collecting evidence and taking
affidavits of natives and sailors, which I shall be pleased to forward
hereafter with other papers in the case including Rand’s ante-mortem
statement.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Memorandum, being an account of the fight
between sailors from the U. S. S. “Buffalo” and natives of
Panama, in the city of Panama, September 28, 1908.
On Monday, September 28, 1908, sailors from the U. S. S. Buffalo were given shore leave. At about
midnight one of them, Charles F. Clark, boatswain’s mate, was in the
dance hall known as “La Floresta” in the bad-lands district of the
city of Panama, sitting at a table drinking beer with a female
companion, when two natives of Panama, one of them supposed to be
the woman’s paramour, came in and spoke to her. After an exchange of
remarks the Panaman started for Clark with a knife. The latter
defended himself and called for help, several of his shipmates
responding, and together they cleared the room. The police appeared
on the scene and arrested the sailors. While the latter were waiting
on the sidewalk for a cab to take them to the police station several
of the Panamans who had been in the fight rushed across the street
to the Cairo saloon, which was somewhat crowded, and made straight
for Charles Rand, boatswain’s mate, who was standing at the bar
talking to the proprietor. They stabbed him and another sailor named
Ceislick, the latter not seriously. Rand, while attempting to defend
himself, was struck over the head by a policeman and floored. He was
handcuffed and dragged some distance before being put in a cab for
the station. At the latter place he was permitted to lie almost an
hour before receiving any medical attention. Later he was removed to
San Tomas Hospital in Panama and thence to Ancon Hospital, where he
died early the next morning. His injuries consisted of a wound on
the head, a cut in the back, and another in the abdominal cavity
just below the heart. The surgeons said that any chance he may have
had for recovery was lost by lack of prompt and proper first
aid.
Meanwhile four other sailors were marooned in the Cairo, being
protected by the proprietor with great difficulty from an attack by
a crowd on the outside composed of the very rough element. Five
petty officers, who had no connection whatever with the fight, were
similarly menaced by a crowd in the Coney Island dance hall. The
latter paid a boy to deliver a note to Mr. Guyant, the American
deputy consul general, who responded promptly and succeeded with the
aid of the police in liberating them.
There are, as is to be expected, many conflicting statements made by
the several witnesses, some of whom maintain that Rand took no part
in the original disturbance, and others to the contrary, but the
foregoing seems to be as correct and coherent an account as may be
had at this time.
