File No. 15778/73.
With the possible exception of the case of the clubbing of W. B. Warner,
each of the cases mentioned in the memorandum seems to call for apology,
the punishment of the police, and indemnity to the injured or the
relatives of the deceased. Moreover, the shocking accumulation of these
incidents calls also for such substantial reform in the personnel and
discipline of the Panaman police and such peremptory admonition to them
by the Government of Panama as shall prove to be effective guaranties
against a recurrence of intolerable brutalities of the character
described.
In bringing these cases emphatically to the attention of the Government
of Panama in this light, you will not conceal the fact that unless the
present representations shall, within a reasonable time, have all the
effect that is expected, the Government of the United States will
scarcely be able to avoid giving careful consideration to the question
whether it shall not be then incumbent upon the United States to assume
the police control of Panama and Colon and the territories and harbors
adjacent thereto, clearly contemplated under given circumstances by
Article VII of the treaty of 1903.
Memorandum, in re maltreatment of American
citizens by Panaman policemen.
The first instance brought to the attention of the department of
conflicts between the Panaman police and Americans occurred on
December 25, 1906. From the reports both of the American vice consul
at Colon and the Zone police officer in charge at the time the
trouble occurred it would seem that W. B. Warner, an American in the
employ of the Isthmian Canal Commission, while intoxicated, engaged
in a fight with an unknown person in or near the
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Cosmopolitan Hotel in Colon, Panama. A
Panaman policeman, in attempting to stop the fight was knocked down
by Warner and then thrown out of the hotel. Several other policemen
were then called in and finally succeeded in arresting Warner and
three other Americans who tried to help him. While the arrest of the
American seems to have been justified the clubbing which Warner
received at the hands of the police, in consequence of which he was
confined to the hospital for several days according to the report of
the American vice consul, seems to have been unnecessary and unduly
severe. It does not appear, however, that this Government ever took
any official notice of the matter, either in calling the attention
of the Panaman Government to the apparently reprehensible conduct of
its police in clubbing Warner or requesting the punishment of those
concerned therein.
A second occurrence of this kind was brought to the attention of the
department when, on June 1, 1906, several American officers of the
U. S. S. Columbia were arrested in a dance
hall in Colon, Panama, without sufficient cause and taken to the
police station where they were roughly handled and brutally clubbed
by the police and finally thrown into jail, where they were left for
some hours without proper medical attention. The attack upon these
officers appears to have been entirely unprovoked and at the time of
the said attack two of the officers were wearing the khaki uniform
of the United States Marine Corps. The United States minister to
Panama was instructed February 26, 1907, to call this matter to the
attention of the Panaman Government and to insist that an indemnity
in the sum of $5,000 be paid by that Government as compensation to
the officers concerned for the injuries complained of. So far as our
records show no steps have yet been taken to comply with this
demand, the Republic of Panama seemingly having disclaimed all blame
in the matter. Under date of November 27, 1908, Minister Squiers, in
reporting upon an encounter between the sailors of the U. S. S. Buffalo and natives of Panama which took
place in the city of Panama on September 28, 1908, asked to be given
“instructions as to further demands for an indemnity in the Columbia cases.” It does not appear that any
further instructions were given him.
On September 28, 1908, a third encounter between the police of Panama
and Americans took place, this time several sailors of the U. S. S.
Buffalo being the victims—Boatswain’s
Mate Charles Rand was killed and Joseph Cieslik, a sailor, was
injured. From the evidence given in this case by the officers and
crew of the U. S. S. Buffalo “there does not
appear to be any doubt,” as stated by the Secretary of State in his
dispatch of October 21, 1908, to Minister Squiers “respecting the
brutality displayed by the city police of Panama in clubbing,
handcuffing, and dragging through the streets the badly wounded
American sailor, Charles Rand; in interfering to prevent him from
being sent, as desired and adranged by his shipmates, to the
hospital for immediate treatment; in taking him to the police
station instead of to the hospital; in refusing to allow a shipmate
to get water to bathe his wounds or to telephone or to go for
medical help; and in permitting him, while in police custody, to lie
suffering and bleeding for more than an hour without medical
attention of any kind. Similar treatment appears to have been given
to another American sailor, Joseph Cieslik, who was likewise
suffering from a knife wound, having also been stabbed in the back.”
On March 8, 1909, Minister Squiers inclosed to the department a
report made by Mr. Weitzel, secretary of the legation, and in his
letter accompanying the report said that the statements made before
the legation by disinterested persons who were eyewitnesses of the
affair confirm the charges made against the police “That Rand was
treated roughly and brutally by the police.”
In his dispatch to the Panama Legation, dated October 23, 1908,
heretofore referred to, Secretary Root, after referring to the facts
as presented to the private citizens of Panama upon the naval
personnel of the United States, but of the foregoing incidents
involving, as they do, not only threats and attacks by department by
the legation at Panama and the officers and crew of the U. S. S. Buffalo, as well as to the Columbia incident, supra, said: “A mere enumeration
inexcusable and reprehensible conduct on the part of the police
authorities at Panama, which shows a tendency to become habitual, is
sufficient without further proof to disclose the existence of
conditions which render it dangerous to allow the officers and
enlisted men of the public ships of a friendly and neighboring
nation to go ashore for the purpose of visiting a friendly city.
Such a state of affairs very closely approaches, if it does not
pass, the limits of toleration, and this Government can not
countenance its continued existence nor submit to the recurrence of
such incidents as those referred to above.
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“You will present a copy of this instruction to the minister for
foreign affairs of Panama, at the same time courteously but firmly
and peremptorily demanding the immediate and adequate punishment of
all parties, including police authorities as well as private
persons, who were concerned either by criminal acts or negligence in
the death of Rand and the maltreatment of Cieslik. You will also
demand prompt and full compensation for the death of Rand and injury
to Cieslik, and, finally, an appropriate apology to this Government
for the insult offered to the uniform of its naval representatives
by the police officials of the Government of Panama.”
The American Legation at Panama, acting under these instructions,
formally demanded of Panama the punishment of the assailants,
including the police; indemnity to the injured; and an apology to
the Government of the United States. Although considerable
correspondence has passed between the two Governments, neither of
the demands above enumerated has been complied with by the Panaman
Government. The department has recently instructed Minister Squiers
to ascertain what steps are being taken by the Panaman Government to
meet the demands of the United States in this matter and to say that
the department still considers the outrage to its sailors and the
insult to itself as serious as when they occurred in September,
1908, and fears delay in the matter may cause Panama to overlook
either the seriousness or the necessity of making complete and
adequate satisfaction both to the dead and injured and to their
Government.
The fourth and last conflict between American citizens and Panaman
policemen occurred on May 10, 1909, during the course of which two
Americans, Charles M. Abbott (white) and John Williams (colored),
were killed, the former by a rock, supposed to have been thrown by a
rioter, and the latter by a rifle shot, supposed to have been fired
by a member of the Colon police force. Neither of these men appears
to have taken any part in the riot, the negro Williams having been
shot while standing on the balcony of a house situated near the
scene of the riot, while Abbott was hit by a rock while endeavoring
to get away from the scene of the riot. It seems from the report
made to the chief of police of the Canal Zone by the assistant chief
that the riot of May 10 was precipitated by the arrest of three
Jamaican laborers and the injury by the Colon policeman of a fourth.
Immediately thereafter a large crowd of Jamaicans, Barbadians, and
others of that class collected and engaged in a general affray, the
police using their guns and the negroes rocks. Neither the American
vice consul nor the police officer in charge of the Zone police
force at Colon indicates anything that would lead one to believe
that the members of the police force of Colon were responsible for
the disorder, except that it is alleged, although apparently not
proven, that the Jamaicans whose arrest started the riot were in the
Canal Zone at the time. If this is so, of course, the Colon police
had no authority to make the arrest, and the Jamaicans were
justified in resisting arrest, and the clubbing of the Jamaicans was
unlawful.
Minister Squiers, in his dispatch of May 19, with which he inclosed a
report by our vice consul at Colon on the riot in question,
said:
“I might add to these reports an account of a riot which took place
at Taboga, where I spend my week ends, in which Americans (white)
and Panamas (police) were involved. I happened to be an eyewitness
to the whole affair and can testify to the utter inefficiency of the
Panama police. On this occasion they were wild with excitement, and
were quite ready to strike or kill anything coming within reach of
their clubs. Had I not been present and able to check my own people
the row would would probably have ended in the death of several
persons.”
On May 30, 1909, the Secretary to the President forwarded a letter
addressed to Minister Squiers by the parents of Charles A. Abbott,
who was killed in the riot of May 10, in which it is said: “I hold
that the Panama Government is responsible for the death of our son
and allege that we should be indemnified for a suitable amount.” No
action has as yet been taken in reference to this claim.
Article VII of the treaty of 1903 between the United States and
Panama provides, inter alia:
“The Republic of Panama agrees that the cities of Panama and Colon
shall comply in perpetuity with the sanitary ordinances whether of a
preventive or curative character prescribed by the United States,
and in case the Government of Panama is unable or fails in its duty
to enforce this compliance by the cities of Panama and Colon with
the sanitary ordinances of the United
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States the Republic of Panama grants to the
United States the right and authority to enforce the same.
“The same right and authority are granted to the United States for
the maintenance of public order in the cities of Panama and Colon
and the territories and harbors adjacent thereto incase the Republic
of Panama should not, in the judgment of the
United States, be able to maintain such order.”
In his dispatch to the department of Way 19, above referred to, Mr.
Squiers says:
“* * * police (national) of this Republic are utterly inefficient and
unfitted for the duties they are supposed to perform. The members of
the force are made up of ward strikers who were useful at the last
election, who are now without training or capacity.
