The Minister of Panama to the Secretary of State.
Washington, D. C., December 31, 1903.
Dear Sir: I have the honor of bringing to your knowledge that by a telegram received during the night of the 21st of December, I have been authorized by my Government to declare that the Republic of Panama, as soon as its independence shall be recognized by the Republic of Colombia, intends to assume a part of Colombia’s exterior debt, of which the principal was settled at £2,000,000 by special convention and which is now accrued by the unpaid interest. The Republic of Panama has determined that the proportion of that debt it is ready to assume will be equal to the proportion between its population and the population of Colombia, a proportion which is not very far from 1 to 15.
I beg, sir, to call your attention to the fact that the Government of the Republic of Panama in making such declaration is actuated by the desire of showing its good faith and its liberality toward the citizens of foreign countries who may think they have a just claim against it rather than by the sentiment that by right they owe any part of the Colombian debt.
The distribution according to the number of inhabitants of the two Republics would be just only if it could be established, which is generally the case, that the money has been employed for the common utility of all the parts of the Republic and that Panama has enjoyed its share of it. On the contrary, this distribution is not just and ought not to be made in strict right if, as is this case, no part of the loans were ever employed for the benefit of the State of Panama, now the Republic of Panama. Since its union to greater Colombia, for the liberation of which said loans were made, the State of Panama has never received any money from the mother country, but, on the contrary, it has sent to it very important sums, and one can say, as a rule, that the funds never went from Bogotá to Panama, but always from Panama [Page 283] to Bogotá. It will be easy to establish that the Department of Panama is the creditor of Colombia and not its debtor and that, therefore, it does not owe to Colombia anything neither for its external debt nor from any other cause.
This would have been a substantial and legal ground for nonassumption of any part of the Colombian debt, but, as I had the honor of stating to you, the Government of the Republic has felt itself bound to justify, not by arguments, but by facts, the testimony of confidence, esteem, and good will which have come from all the governments of the greatest nations of earth since the recent date of its birth.
I am, sir, with great respect, your very obedient servant,
His Excellency John Hay,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.