The Secretary of State to Minister Merry .
Washington , January 27, 1906 .
(Referring to questions affecting the American Banana Company, Mr. Root states that it is represented that the company is suffering through eviction and seizure of their property in the disputed Sixola [Page 1185] territory, and instructs Mr. Merry to say that while this Government does not controvert the power of Costa Rica and Colombia or Panama to make a provisional agreement respecting the administration of that territory pending the definite settlement of its ownership, it does not concede the power of the provisional administrator to execute judgments in the capacity of sovereign until the sovereignty of the territory is adjudicated and the courts of the sovereign have passed upon the matters involved. Says that the Government of the United States does not concede the right of either to prejudice the ultimate rights of American citizens therein by adverse action in advance of such definite adjudication, and that it does not undertake to determine the conflicting claims of title made by this company and by other American citizens, but it will reserve in behalf of any injured American citizen, as against either Costa Rica or Panama, all rights which pertain to the territory, and for the infringement of which its rightful sovereign may be found responsible. Informs Mr. Merry that a similar communication is made to the Government of the Republic of Panama.)
Same mutatis mutandis to Panama.