File No. 419.11D29/51.
The Secretary of State to Minister Price.
Washington , April 16, 1914 .
Sir: The Department has received your telegram of the 9th instant replying to the Department’s telegram of the 7th instant, urging early settlement of the claims growing out of the Cocoa Grove disturbances in Panama City.
In reply the Department desires to point out that nearly two years have elapsed since several American citizens were killed and many more wounded in Panama City by the unlawful action of the Panaman police, and the Government of Panama has apparently not yet concluded its investigation of the affair. Therefore, it inevitably appears that that Government is chargeable with wholly unwarranted delay.
You will present the matter in this light and say that an assurance given so long after the event that “progress in the matter was real” is entirely unsatisfactory and that this Government must insist upon the immediate settlement of the matters growing out of the occurrences mentioned.
I am, [etc.]