File No. 419.11D29/33.
The Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, January 9, 1913.
Sir: Referring to Mr. Andrews No. 250 of November 20 last, the Department desires you to take up again with the Foreign Office the question of the adjustment of the matters growing out of the disturbances in Panama on July 4 last, in which two American citizens lost their lives and many other American citizens were more or less seriously injured.
You will say that the Department has given careful consideration to the testimony collected by the Panaman authorities with regard to this affair. As a result of this consideration and a comparison of this testimony with the great mass of evidence collected by the representatives of the United States Government in Panama, the Department has come to the conclusion that such Panaman testimony as was not given by interested policemen and other guilty participants in the affair was obtained through force and intimidation; indeed, the Department is in possession of information showing that these practices obtained in the collection of this evidence.
The witnesses whose testimony was secured by the Panaman authorities aside from those classes before mentioned are mainly inmates of the disorderly houses located in the section where the disturbances occurred, and many of these people also gave evidence before the United States representatives which is largely at variance with that which they are reported as having given in the course of the Panaman investigation. On this point it is interesting to note that one of these persons, Clara Bernard, in an affidavit made before the police authorities of the Canal Zone stated that when her evidence in regard to this affair was obtained by Señor Quijano the latter omitted everything which she said detrimental to the police; while another of these persons, Becky Katz, states in an affidavit that she was warned by the police to make no statement favorable to the Americans.
The Department considers therefore that it is entirely warranted in declaring its belief that the testimony supplied by the former administration of Panama with relation to this affair is unworthy of credence so far as it attempts to absolve the Panaman police from guilty responsibility for the killing and wounding of American citizens.
However, it is abundantly shown by that very testimony that the police fired revolvers and rifles at American citizens during the progress of this affray and that Panaman civilians pursued the Americans with sticks, stones and clubs.
Moreover, as showing the animus of the police and their superior officers, it is worthy of great note that Eleuterio Solano, who was assistant desk officer at police headquarters on July 4 last, has furnished an affidavit to the representatives of the United States in which he says that Lieutenant Vergara, the desk officer, upon receiving reports of the disturbances in question sent by the sergeant in charge of the Cocoa Grove station, replied by orders to the latter to shoot and kill some Americans. Furthermore, evidence given by [Page 1071] Rafael Alzamora and A. Mendoza before the representatives of the United States is to the effect that they heard policemen upon leaving the station to go to the scene of the trouble say they were going to kill “gringos.”
The United States Government is not to be understood as denying that there was some disorderly conduct on the part of the American citizens in the Cocoa Grove district on July 4 last, but it does not appear that such disorder was directly dangerous to the life of any person. On the other hand, the evidence obtained by the representatives of the United States not only from soldiers and marines and Americans generally but from Panamans and persons of other nationalities clearly and overwhelmingly establishes that on the occasion in question the police of Panama virtually ran amuck, shooting and stabbing indiscriminately.
Thus the death of the American civilian Ralph W. Davis, who had taken no part in the affray, is shown to have been caused by a bayonet thrust through him by a Panaman policeman from whose attack, while Davis was peacefully seated in a bar-room, the latter had endeavored to seek refuge behind a piece of furniture.
To cite another instance, it may be said that the evidence in regard to the severe wounding of the American civilian John Young, a non-participant in the disturbances, shows that he was walking peacefully with a friend when they were fired upon by five or six Panaman policeman and Young received three bullet wounds in the head.
The evidence further shows that a soldier who had thrown himself upon his back was fired at and beaten by a policeman standing over him; that another soldier who knelt and begged for mercy was ruthlessly beaten; that another American citizen dangerously wounded with a compound fracture of the thigh was brutally beaten to make him walk and then thrown roughly in a carriage.
You will therefore renew the insistence of the United States Government upon the bases of adjustment set forth in the Department’s telegram of September 24 last1 and say that the United States Government expects immediate compliance therewith.
In order to assist the Panaman Government in establishing the identity of some of the guilty policemen (which, you will add, should not be a difficult task) you will state that the evidence in the possession of the Department indicates that the number of the policeman who fired the first shot in the affray appears to have been 360; that policeman Alberto Pena knocked down and kicked an American soldier; and that policeman Florencio Casiano, No. 315, afterwards shot the same soklier through the leg with a rifle. Witnesses who have testified before the United States representatives upon these points are Gerardo Brown, Berlin Mina, Juan Cortez, Antigua Cortes, all Panamans.
The Department is also in possession of information imparted on September 3d last to Inspector Belknap of the Canal Zone Police by Juan B. Wellington, Panaman policeman No. 343, to the effect that the latter’s brother, also a policeman, was at the Cocoa Grove station on the evening of July 4th last when he saw policeman Mariano Carabati, then No. 531, come into the station with a bayonet affixed to a rifle covered with blood and badly bent. Juan B. Wellington further [Page 1072] stated that his brother could testify that Carabati had killed the above-mentioned American Ralph W. Davis, and could identify another policeman (Domingo Moreno, present No. 210, No. on July 4th last 532?) who was present when Carabati committed this murder. Wellington added that on July 6th or 7th last Carabati’s number was changed to 110, and that about August 1st he was discharged but still remained in Panama City.
I am [etc.]