File N. 819.00/434.
The American Minister to the Secretary of State.
Panama, July 20, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on the 10th instant the committee received a reply from Señor Chiari, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to its note addressed to him on the 8th instant (despatch No. 154) making certain categorical requests. This reply granted the first request of the committee, namely, the reissue of the President’s instructions of the 28th ultimo, but accompanied this grant with charges against numerous supervisors, some of which had already previously been made by Señor Chiari and satisfactorily explained by the committee. The reply refused the second request of the committee, the most important one, namely, that all firearms in the possession of the police should be deposited under such guard as the supervisors might appoint until the end of the electoral period, stating that the President was constitutionally unable to grant such a request. The note, however, offered that the arms should be deposited in the police stations and should not be used “except to arrest persons guilty of unusual crimes, maintain order, or reestablish it, according to the requests of the supervisors.” Accompanying this offer the note made serious reflections upon the elections of the 30th ultimo, and also made the statement, remarkable in view of the extremely numerous instances brought to Señor Chiari’s attention, that “no information had been received that the authorities or police in that district had impeded voters of the opposition party from making use of their right to vote.” Regarding this, the third request, that the supervisors should have all proper facilities to investigate all cases of arrests so as to prevent arrests for political purposes, the reply merely stated that orders would be issued to take especial care to favor members of the opposition party in the exercise of the suffrage. As to the fourth and last request, that instructions should be given to prevent any further failure of the authorities to allow persons accused or sentenced for minor offenses, to vote, in accordance with decree No. 44 of the 20th ultimo, the reply agreed to issue such instructions.
Señor Chiari’s reply appeared to the committee to give entirely insufficient guaranties of the Government’s fair intentions and to be argumentative and even bordering upon the offensive in character. The committee accordingly decided to make no further endeavors to induce the Panaman Government to issue further instructions, but—standing upon the authority already granted to them in Señor Chiari’s note of June 11 last (despatch No. 149), by which the control of the police and the disposition of their arms were left to the committee, and that granted in the President’s decree approving the instructions to supervisors of voting (despatch No. 152)—merely to reply to Señor Chiari that the committee were unable to agree with the President’s interpretation of these documents, which, if it were correct, would not enable them to perform properly the duties imposed upon them by the President himself and by the Government of the United States; and that the committee would faithfully [Page 1161] comply with these duties and would accordingly instruct the supervisors to assert all authority given them by the decree mentioned. The text of the instructions to be sent to the supervisors was subsequently quoted in the note to Señor Chiari. These instructions were then telegraphed to all the 61 supervisors and were subsequently repeated when not duly acknowledged.
To this note Señor Chiari replied on the 12th instant in a long communication alleging that the Government had not desired to limit the powers of the supervisors, but merely to determine them. Señor Chiari then alleged that certain supervisors had so far overstepped their proper powers that in some districts “the Government of the Republic had ceased to exist,” and stated that the Government did not agree with the committee’s interpertation of the documents mentioned. Regarding the instructions telegraphed to the supervisors, Señor Chiari asserted that the Government did not approve of the powers given them to investigate arrests. His note ended by quoting a telegram sent to the governors and alcaldes instructing them to give all support to the supervisors according to the instructions given by the Government and the committee, reporting any departure of the supervisors from these instructions.
The committee decided that no reply to this note was necessary.
Meanwhile, until the 10th instant, nothing further had been heard from Señor Ramón Arias Feraud, jr., who, as stated in my despatch No. 154, had expressed a desire to make a further attempt to induce the Unión Patriótica to agree to retire its candidate, provided the Porrista party was willing to guarantee to the United States that when they took office they would, place the police and finances under American supervision and reform the electoral laws. Finally, on the 10th instant Señor Ramón Arias called upon me and declared that his further efforts had been useless.
Señores Tomas Arias and Julio Fabrega, the representatives of the Unión Patriótica before the committee, resigned from this representation about the 10th instant, stating that they considered their further service to be useless. It will be remembered that on the 10th instant the committee had answered their note dated the 8th instant (but only received late on the 9th instant), stating that they would give careful consideration to such evidence of fraud in the elections as the Unión Patriótica desired to submit (despatch No. 154). On the 11th instant the committee received a letter from Señor Ramon Arias, who had been appointed to succeed Señores Tomas Arias and Fabrega, inclosing a large number of telegrams and other documents, which lie stated to be part of the evidence of fraud in the elections of the 80th ultimo. He further stated that more evidence would be submitted later and that his party “trusted that the committee would also take into consideration that the irregularities and frauds shown by this evidence were such that until they were corrected the political party to whose prejudice they had been committed would not have sufficient confidence to go to the polls on the next elections” (14th instant). Accordingly, his party requested that the elections should be put off until August 11, so that proper measures might be taken to avoid a repetition of the alleged frauds.
[Page 1162]To this the committee replied on the following day stating again that this evidence would be given earnest consideration, but that no sufficient ground had yet been shown for putting off the elections fixed by law for the 14th instant. On the following day the committee received a further parcel of documents from Señor Arias said to be additional evidence, and on the 12th instant it received another letter from him. This letter acknowledged the receipt of the committee’s letter and stated that the Unión Patriótica justly complained of the partiality of the committee, for which reason “solely “it had decided that its members throughout the Republic should not vote. Señor Arias ended his letter by stating that he was “authorized to withdraw the request for the annulment of the elections and to demand the return of the evidence submitted in order to make better use of it,” again protesting formally against the partiality of the committee and the supervisors.
It is a fact that owing to the extremely defective voting system here repeating is frequent and is practically impossible to prevent. During the election on the 30th ultimo, however, the reports received by the committee point strongly to repeating and fraudulent swearing of identity being indulged in practically equally by both parties. It would seem certain, therefore, that these frauds did not affect the result of the voting. The committee naturally did not consider that its authority extended to reforming the voting system of the Republic, which, moreover, it would not have had time to do, and which would have involved changes in this substantive law. Such changes in the substantive law the committee at the very beginning of its work duly announced that it would not make. Finally, it may be noted that the committee was not requested to make any such changes by either party until after the defeat of one of them. On the contrary, the system of voting as prescribed by law was set forth in the instructions to supervisors of voting and was accepted by both parties with only a slight change proposed by the Unión Patriótica, which was accepted by the committee (despatch No. 152).
As the day of the election for presidential electors approached rumors of some covert hostile action on the part of the Government became more and more persistent. On the 12th instant the Unión Patriótica published a long “manifesto “announcing the withdrawal of Señor Diaz’s candidacy, and again charging fraud and partiality of the supervisors. On the 13th instant I telegraphed to the Department giving briefly the situation. On the preceding day I received the Department’s telegram of July 11, which, according to the directions in it, I communicated to Señor Chiari for the information of President Arosemena. This materially strengthened the committee’s position. The withdrawal of the Unión Patriótica had been expected for some days, and it is probable that it had been deferred to await the result of Señor Carlos Constantino Arosemena’s visit to Washington (despatch No. 153). On the same day on which the Department’s telegram was received it was credibly reported that the Government had received a telegram from Señor Ricardo Arias, Panaman Minister at Washington, to the effect that further hope was useless, since the American Government supported the committee. It was on the evening of this same day that the manifesto above mentioned appeared.
[Page 1163]The 14th instant, the day of the election, passed off with perfect order and quiet in Panama City and Colon, and, in fact, in all the districts of the Republic. The committee, in view of the attitude of the Government and the current reports, had taken certain precautions, sending a number of additional assistant supervisors to the districts where the officials were known to be most partisan.
The result of the voting, in which the Diistas took no part, showed a vote for Dr. Porras practically similar to that cast for him on the 30th ultimo.
The feeling of the Diista party is, of course, intensely bitter, and this bitterness is naturally directed especially against the members of the committee and to some extent against Americans in general. In fact, rumors of violence to the members of the committee have been current. For this reason I have advised the commanders of the infantry regiment and marines not to allow their men in Panama for some days to come. No overt acts have as yet been committed nor do I now think that any will occur, as the indications are that the Government is at last really exerting itself to rid the police of its most dangerous elements. Indeed, the Government now appears to appreciate that the large number of dangerous characters which it has collected for electoral purposes and given employment to as policemen, plain-clothes men, supernumerary laborers, or agents provocateurs may well, now that it has no more favors to offer them, get out of hand and prove to be a source of danger to itself. Another good feature of the present situation is the evident effort which the Porrista party is making to conciliate its recent opponents.
Though it seems almost incredible, in view of the repeated unequivocal declarations of our Government, President Arosemena’s Government has up to the last deluded itself with the idea that by insistence and persistence it would at last be able to secure support from the United States. By the action of the Porrista party in asking for supervision of the elections, the Government was forced also to ask for such supervision itself, but in doing so it did not expect that this supervision would be effective and prevent it from making use of its official powers.
The committee believe that both of the recent elections have been as fair and free from fraud as the circumstances admit, and that the candidates favored by the great majority of the voters have been elected. What frauds have been perpetrated have been unavoidable under the present election laws, which should be changed, and have probably been perpetrated equally by both parties, unless they have been perpetrated more extensively by the Diista party. So far as they have been able to learn, the committee also believe that the supervisors and their assistants, who are all men of good standing, military officers and noncommissioned officers and employees of the Isthmian Canal Commission, have done their duty well and impartially, often under the most trying conditions. If in some cases possibly they may slightly have overstepped their authority, this has undoubtedly been due to the provocative attitude of many local officials and in accordance with the supervisors’ best judgment in order to avoid serious trouble. This can not have affected the result of the voting.
[Page 1164]Many persons whose opinion appears entitled to weight have informed the committee that the recent elections are the fairest which Panama has ever had. The press is entirely partisan and, since the recent disappearance of Los Hechos, entirely pro-Porras. Its opinion as to the elections is, therefore, naturally extremely favorable. To-day the committee has received a letter from the liberal and conservative branches of the Porrista party, expressing their gratitude to the Government of the United States and to the committee for “the great service rendered to our country by having secured free and pure elections.”
I have [etc.]