File No. 419.11 D 29/15.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, August 30, 1912.
The Minister of Panama stated at the Department on August 27 that unless our Legation supplied full proofs of guilt, he hoped this Government would not press for the dismissal of Ossa; to which the Department to-day replied that it does not find any justification for modifying in any respect its just insistence upon Ossa’s dismissal, and that the Department feels that Ossa and Quijano must both be held responsible for grave outrages which involve death and injury of American citizens.
In making your representations you should recall to the Government of Panama that this last outrage is merely the culmination of a long series of indignities and injuries to American citizens. You will then say that these indignities and injuries have been inflicted under such circumstances as to convince this Government that the Panaman police as now organized can not be trusted adequately to protect the life and property of American citizens nor even to refrain from acts of their own, whenever the opportunity may occur, of positive violence against American citizens; that this Government must therefore repeat its demand for the immediate removal of the responsible officers; and that this Government must consider what immediate measures it will be obliged to adopt, in view of its rights, duties and obligations in the premises, in case the Panama police force should not be so reorganized as adequately to secure the maintenance of public order in the cities of Panama and Colon and in the adjacent territories and harbors.