File No. 819.74/37.
Minister Price to the
Secretary of State.
[Extract.]
No. 69.]
American Legation,
Washington,
January 16, 1914.
Sir: I have the honor to report that on this
day I am in receipt of a Foreign Office note from Señor Lefevre,
Secretary of Foreign
[Page 1041]
Affairs
of Panama, in which he states that his Government is anxious to enter
into an agreement as promptly as possible for the interchange of
wireless messages.
A copy of said note and its translation in duplicate are enclosed.
It will be noted that Señor Lefevre in his note makes the impression that
his Government has in view the establishment by it of wireless stations
in the Republic, and that he names the coasts of San Bias and Bocas del
Toro on the Atlantic side and the Darien on the Pacific side as the
locations, where his country is urgently in need of wireless
stations.
In asking recently if I had heard from Washington regarding the plans of
our Government with respect to establishing its wireless stations here,
Señor Lefevre remarked that his Government would want to have its own
employees in charge of the stations in the Republic of Panama and that
this would be a necessity in the San Bias region, inhabited by
uncivilized Indians.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Minister Price.
Panama,
January 14, 1914.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to address
your excellency with reference to your kind note No. 8 of last month
and to inform you that my Government desires to enter into an
agreement with that of the United States at the earliest possible
moment for the interchange of wireless messages between the stations
which the Republic has in view of establishing and those actually
operating and which shall be operated in the Canal Zone.
As I informed his excellency the Secretary of War of the United
States, at an interview held in Culebra during his recent visit to
Panama, my Government is urgently in need of establishing wireless
stations on the coast of San Bias and Bocas del Toro, on the
Atlantic, and in the Darien, on the Pacific.
The development of these rich regions, as well as the police
patrolling of these coasts to prevent contraband, demands
imperatively the establishment of wireless stations above referred
to and which my Government wishes to carry out in accord with your
excellency’s Government.
Thanking your excellency for a definite answer on this important
affair,
I avail [etc.]