File No. 819.55/9.
The American Chargé d’Affaires to the Secretary of State.
Panama , June 18, 1913.
Sir: Referring to Mr. Dodge’s despatch No. 469 of June 10th, 1913, and previous correspondence, I have the honor to inform the Department that Mr. Ow Yang King, the Chinese Consul General at Panama, has called upon me twice with regard to Law 50 of 1913, recently enacted, prohibiting the immigration of Chinese, Turks, Syrians, and North Africans of the Turkish race into the Republic of Panama, and with regard to Supplementary Decree No. 44 of 1913, of May 31st, 1913, modifying the above law.
At his first visit Mr. King expressed his regret that no changes had been made in the decree in spite of his efforts and the good offices of Mr. Dodge in presenting the matter before Señor Lefevre, the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Mr. King informed me that the greater number of his people could not pay the registration tax which amounts, in the case of Chinese who have entered the country since the 18th of March, 1904, to $250 United States currency for each individual, and that it meant the ruin of many of the smaller Chinese merchants doing business in Panama unless some modification could be introduced into the law. He reiterated that the decree instead of rendering less severe the law which it was enacted to [Page 1112] modify had made it unbearable; that the tax of $1,000 United States currency per month levied upon the Chinese Chamber of Commerce was excessive, and that the law withdrew from the Chinese their constitutional rights, adding that the more prominent Chinese in this city had intimated to him that the only way to obtain fair treatment would be for the Chinese merchants as a body to close up their shops and refuse to sell goods to any person whatsoever. He thought that such action by affecting the poorer classes of Panamans who deal largely with the Chinese because the latter sell them goods more cheaply than merchants of other nationalities and are, moreover, in the habit of extending credit for several days at a time to their customers, would presently compel the Panaman Government to modify or at least to postpone the actual enforcement of the law. He added that his people were entirely prepared for united action but that he, for his part, was not in favor of resorting to extreme measures until all other means had failed, fearing that the closing of the shops would cause a great rise in prices and lead to disturbances and riots.
Copies of Law 50 of 1913 and of its supplementary decree were printed last week and published together, on a single sheet, but were not for some unknown reason distributed until yesterday. After receiving the printed copies, the Consul General called again at the Legation. He reported a conversation which he had had a shot time before with three of the leading wholesale merchants of this city, in which they expressed the uneasiness felt by the entire business community in anticipation of the effect of this new and prohibitive law. It is well known that the smaller Chinese firms doing business with the poorer classes of Panamans in the necessities of life obtain the greater part of their goods from the large wholesale dealers who will be disastrously affected if the Chinese, who control more than 70% of this trade, are compelled to close their shops or eventually be driven from the country. In this same connection, I would mention that this morning the managers of the two leading American banks of this city came to the Legation and explained to me that they had extensive credits with the Chinese both here in Panama and throughout the country in general and were desirous of knowing what was being done with a view toward calling in their loans should it seem likely that the extreme measures now enacted by the Panaman Government would be actually put into effect. They both expressed the hope that the date for the operation of the law might be postponed for at least six months in order to enable the business community to meet the situation without the uncertainties and heavy losses which would otherwise almost certainly occur.
In view of the Department’s instruction contained in the telegram of March 221 requesting this Legation to use its good offices with the Government of Panama for the protection of Chinese interests along the lines indicated in the Department’s previous instruction, I am prepared to take up with Señor Lefevre the points outlined above, but have so far, at Mr. King’s request, refrained from doing so, particularly as it seemed to both of us that the delay in actually publishing the law and its supplementary decree might have been caused by the desire of the Panaman Government to reconsider its provision [Page 1113] with a view toward their further modification as well as to determine the possible effect of the measures upon the Chinese. Now that both the law and the decree have been published, I have arranged for an interview tomorrow morning with Mr. King, at which I shall take up with him the advisability of presenting the points above mentioned to Señor Lefevre for his consideration.
I have [etc.]
- Should read March 21.↩