File No. 319.112 R 15/127.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, February 19, 1912.
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 54, of the 18th ultimo, reporting that Paulino Macías and Abelardo Bustos, two of the policemen who were guilty of brutalities toward seamen of the U. S. S. Buffalo on September 28, 1908, and who, together with three others, were discharged from the National Police force of Panama on August 1, 1909, to satisfy the demands of this Government, have been reinstated in the Panaman police. You add that the reinstatement of Bustos must have occurred soon after his dismissal and that of Macías a few months ago.
The demands of this Government for the dismissal of these men contemplated, as it seemed hardly necessary to explain, not only the [Page 1263] discharge of these policemen but also their permanent separation from the police force, and the Department is disagreeably surprised to learn that two of them have been reinstated.
Although the Department believes it inadvisable to press this matter very urgently at the present time, you are instructed to lay before the Minister for Foreign Affairs the facts of the case, calling attention to the disagreeable impression the Department has received upon learning of the reinstatement of these men and stating that the Government can not be satified with less than the permanent separation from the Panaman police force of all the police officials involved in the Buffalo affair. You may add that this Government can not believe that the Government of Panama intends to depart from the attitude it adopted toward this matter at the time of its settlement and will accordingly not fail to cause Macías and Bustos to be promptly discharged and permanently barred from the Panaman police force.
I am [etc.]