819.6341P19/36
The Chargé in Panama ( Muse ) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 1.]
Sir: With reference to my confidential despatch No. 2048 of June 8, 1929, transmitting a copy of my Note No. 973 of June 6, 1929,25 concerning the control by the United States of radiotelegraphy in Panama, and describing my conversation with the Secretary of Foreign Relations at the presentation of that note, I have the honor to enclose herewith a copy and translation of Señor Arosemena’s note in reply, No. 1096 of June 21, 1929, which I received on Saturday, June 22nd.
I believe that the Department will consider this note a satisfactory reply to the Legation’s note of February 16, 1927, referring to [Page 733] the radio concession granted to the Tonosí Fruit Company, since it states expressly that the concession granted to the Tonosí Fruit Company, like that granted the Panama Corporation, Limited, must necessarily be understood to be subject to the decree by the Panaman Government on August 29, 1914. Señor Arosemena’s note, however, raises the new question of a projected Panaman Government radio station on Coiba Island and omits referring to the suggestions that the situation be made clear to the concessionnaires.
Señor Arosemena stated to me orally that the Panaman Government wished to establish a radio station on Coiba Island and implied that it was being prevented from doing so on account of the control of radio telegraphy by the United States; to which I replied that I was sure that a request from the Panaman Government to establish such a station would be given the utmost consideration by my Government and that, in fact, I had no reason to believe that such a request would be refused. Señor Arosemena then stated that it would be extremely embarrassing for him to make such a request of the American Government. In his note he merely announces the Coiba Island project, incidentally to his assurance that the station will be “under the complete and permanent control of the United States of America.”
I have also discussed the Coiba Island project with the authorities of the Fifteenth Naval District and they inform me that, while there has been no formal correspondence on the subject, they had heard a rumor of such a project and they perceive no objection to it. They state that it would be an apparently practical and desirable step for Panama and would offer no danger or inconvenience to The Panama Canal.
I discussed the matter of the note at a picnic yesterday (Sunday) with the Secretary of Foreign Relations and called his attention to the suggestion in my note of June 6th that the Panaman Government should make it clear to the Panama Corporation, Limited, that any grant of the right to establish radio stations is subject to the Decree of 1914. Señor Arosemena replied that the Decree of 1914 is in full force as a part of Panaman law and that the Panaman Government is not responsible for any ignorance of it on the part of the Panama Corporation, Limited. If the Panama Corporation, Limited, should proceed in violation of that decree, he said, it would violate the law of Panama and he added that it is a principle of Panaman jurisprudence that “ignorance of the law is no excuse for the violation thereof.”
I shall not insist further on this point until further instructed and I desire in the meantime to submit several local considerations in this connection to the Department. The Panaman Government is at odds at this moment with the Panama Corporation, Limited, over [Page 734] a point of national dignity, as reported in my despatch No. 2061 of June 21 [24], 1929,26 and it might be particularly embarrassing to the Panaman Government during this episode to point out to the Panama Corporation, Limited, that this detail of the “control” over “one fourth of Panama” (which Mr. Alves has claimed for his Company!) is reserved to the United States. There is, moreover, no immediate prospect of the establishment of a radio station by the Panama Corporation, Limited, and it is, indeed, doubtful if it will ever undertake to establish radio stations in Panama.
Finally, the attorney for the Panama Corporation, Limited, in Panama is Dr. Horacio Alfaro, formerly Panaman Secretary of Foreign Relations, to whom the Legation’s note of February 16, 1927, was addressed and who has, of course, a thorough knowledge of the background of the radio situation. Moreover, Dr. Alfaro, since his retirement, is pursuing a lucrative law practice in the Canal Zone, in addition to his practice in Panama, and has become more and more identified with Americans and American activities on the Isthmus. He is also a close personal friend and I could, perhaps, appropriately mention the matter to him. If the Department desires me to pursue the matter further and unless it is essential that the explanation should be made by the Panaman Government itself, I might be able to make it clear to the Panama Corporation, Limited, through Dr. Alfaro, that any grant of the right to establish radio stations is subject to the Decree of 1914. I shall, however, await the Department’s instructions before taking any further steps in this matter.
I may add as of possible interest in this connection that Señor Arosemena, before drafting the enclosed note, informed me that the Legation’s note of February 16, 1927, was not to be found in the Foreign Office files, and that I furnished him with a copy thereof at his request.
I have informed the Acting Governor of The Panama Canal of the contemplated establishment by the Panaman Government of a radio station on Coiba Island and suggested informally that he may wish to proceed with the routine investigation of the project through the naval and military authorities to the end that a formal decision may be reached concerning it.
I have [etc.]
- Latter not printed.↩
- Not printed.↩
- See Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, pp. 1 ff.↩