Mr. Blaine to Mr. Hurtado.
Washington, January 31, 1890.
Sir: I have the honor to recall to your attention the claim against the Government of Colombia growing out of the suspension in 1886 of the Panama Star and Herald, a newspaper published in Colombia by an American corporation.
The facts in the case may briefly be summarized as follows:
The Star and Herald and La Estrella de Panama Company, limited, was incorporated on or about the 17th of December, 1883, under the laws of the State of New York. The company was organized by citizens of the United States, employs American capital, and has its principal office in the city of New York. On March 25, 1886, Gen. Santo Domingo Vila, then civil and military governor of the national department of Panama, addressed to the editor of the Starand Herald a personal note, inclosing copies of certain telegrams and suggesting their publication, if the editor should deem it expedient, the language employed being “‘si lo tiene á bien y lo considera conducente.” As the telegrams gravely reflected upon General Montoya, a brother officer of Gen. Santo Domingo Vila, the editor of the Star and Herald very properly, desiring to hold aloof from the political controversies prevailing in Colombia, as well as to avoid a suit for libel, did not make the suggested publication. Moreover, in adopting this course, he was acting in accordance with the warning given him by the President of Colombia in the preceding year, when a circular order was issued for the suspension of all newspaper offices throughout the Republic until after the meeting of a convention then about to be called for the revision of the national constitution.
The President of the Republic subsequently excepted the Star and Herald from the operation of the order, but in so doing cautioned the editor to observe “strict circumspection as to political subjects.”
No complaint has been made that the editor of the Star and Herald disregarded this injunction. Gen. Santo Domingo Vila invited him to violate it, and, besides, to expose himself to prosecutions. The editor, adhering to the wise and proper course which he had theretofore been pursuing, and also acting upon the discretion expressly left him, did not publish the telegrams. As above stated, the note of Gen. Santo Domingo Vila, inclosing the telegrams, bore date of March 25, 1886. On the following day, the 26th of March, he, as the civil and military governor of the national department of Panama, issued an order summarily suspending the publication of the Star and Herald and announcing as the reasons for his action that the editor of the paper had refused to publish documents of importance relating to the policy of reform in the administration of the department, “without even having the courtesy to answer the polite private note (esquela) which accompanied them.” The suspension of the paper was continued until May 24, 1886, when the President and secretary of interior of the Republic commanded Gen. Santo Domingo Vila to reëstablish it, or, in default thereof, to surrender his office into the hands of General Rengifo. On the day following Gen. Santo Domingo Vila replied that the term of suspension had expired and at the same time tendered his resignation as civil and military governor, which was accepted.
[Page 273]During the suspension of the paper protests were made on the part of this Government against the action of Gen. Santo Domingo Vila, but, although that action was manifestly arbitrary and wrongful and has never been defended, the suspension was permitted to continue for 2 months. It was attended with serious detriment, not only to the rights of the company under the treaty as an American corporation, but also to its pecuniary interests. Had the acts complained of been committed in time of war, that fact might have been referred to as in some measure a palliation of them, though not as a justification; but they were perpetrated in time of peace, when the civil laws were in full force, by the officer whose duty it was to see that those laws were maintained. It is now nearly 4 years since the Star and Herald was suspended, but the company has been afforded no redress at the hands of the Colombian Government for the grave wrong inflicted. Such redress, it is thought, should now be tendered.
I am, etc.,