Speech of Señor don Aristides Arjona, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Panama, at a dinner given to Mr. Knox at Panama City, February 28, 1912.
Mr. Secretary Knox:
When the cable and the press announced a few days ago your visit to some of the Central and South American republics, the citizens who represent the brain and the heart of these nations, as if moved by a single potent impulse, made ready with their eyes fixed upon you, who can not be other than a bearer of good tidings and an inspirer of wholesome political policies for the Latin-American countries.
These countries, Mr. Secretary, relatively young, as compared with those of the old continent, are eager in this delicate period of their existence for such examples and teachings as may be offered by your great nation, which holds properly the first place in the civilization and progress of this hemisphere.
The youth, the blood, the race, and the idiosyncrasies, in short, of these countries tend to make them appear impulsive in the grave questions in which a solution is needed for complicated social and political problems, since, in truth, opposing tendencies and judgments degenerate sometimes into internal complications with prejudicial consequences to the Latin-American family. On the other hand, in your country, the United States, the model Republic, a clear, temperate judgment, cold as the snows of those beautiful latitudes, can at all times be brought to bear upon the series of difficult problems which present themselves to the intelligence and activity of statesmen like yourself; and therefore Latin-American nations, guided by a common purpose to become great, receive with interest and pleasure your visit, which can have no other object than to stimulate and benefit them. Considering the facts thus, I do not hesitate to acknowledge that only a noble altruism guides you, that only lofty ideals inspire your acts, and that only your marked interest in the future of these entities of young America has impelled you to lay aside your delicate and multifarious official duties in your own country to come to strengthen the ties of friendship, interest, and sympathy which join them with your nation, increasing the prestige which has been attained by the wise diplomacy of North America.
The Republic of Panama, mistress of the two greatest bodies of water which bathe the world, has a thousand reasons to be grateful to you and to your Government, and to-day has another reason in considering that it is the first which you have chosen to honor with your visit, you who intend to proceed to the other countries, which will receive you cordially, as an illustrious and distinguished guest, with ovations expressive of their feelings. Panama knows that your mission is one of laudable patriotism and international concord, and doubts not that it will also know how to respond to the call of American confraternity which you have addressed to it, since it aspires loyally to aid you in the work of Pan American progress which you [Page 1244] carry on with such success and which will make your name imperishable in the records of the world of Columbus.
You know well, Mr. Secretary, that the Republic of Panama will always be in accord with your lofty views of international policy. A thousand reasons for perpetual gratitude and lasting union bind the inhabitants of the Isthmus to the American Government and people; therefore your triumphs will always have our sincere plaudits and the possibility of your reverses as a nation will always be considered by us as a personal calamity.
The gigantic work of the Interoceanic Canal, which astonishes the whole world, is the principal factor in the community of interests and the reciprocity of sentiment which characterize the relations between cur countries. To protect this great work, which is already nearing conclusion, the Republic of Panama will omit neither care nor effort, since it will always hold in remembrance the protection received from your, nation when it took its first steps as a sovereign state and the wise purpose which has guided your country in all the acts in which its assistance has been necessary to secure the benefits acquired with our independence.
The work of the representatives of your Government in this Republic and in the Zone of the Canal has been most appropriate and beneficial. Confining myself to the present, I will mention the able diplomat, Mr. Dodge, who maintains upon a high plane the relations between both countries. At the head of the civil administration, Governor Thatcher is a model of zeal and intelligence. Colonel Gorgas, with his well-disciplined officials in the sanitary department, has effectively removed the dark and horrible specter of epidemics; and, finally, Colonel Goethals, the man of iron, of trained mind, of never-sufficiently-praised energy, the supreme director of the stupendous work of the canal, with his constant and honorable zeal to immortalize the name of the United States in that of the colossal work, offers to your powerful country the splendid spectacle, which all powers will witness with delight, of the rapid passage of ships through the channel which is being opened by the unceasing blows of the marvelous arm of the North American Nation. A day of glory, recorded with letters of gold in the annals of the Republic of Panama, will be that upon which traffic through the new road is opened. The world, astounded, will contemplate the celebration which will crown the glory of the people and Government of the United States and which, at the cost of enormous sacrifice, will be the most valuable offering presented upon the altar of universal progress.
Welcome, therefore, illustrious Mr. Secretary. Behold in the people of the Republic of Panama, which has for you the immense gratitude of the protégé, more than a friend, a true brother; and in the name of the Government and of all the citizens of my country accept this modest expression of appreciation and sympathy which we have dedicated to you for your entertainment. When you return to your country, tell the American Government and people, in the name of the Republic of Panama, that we, the people of the Isthmus, are bound to them with the same ties, with the same eternal bonds, with which at no distant time, to the astonishment of the world and for all eternity, the deep, blue waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific will be united.