File No. 410.11H23/21.

The Secretary of State to Minister Dodge.

No. 107.]

Sir: Referring to your Legation’s No. 74, of January 30, 1911,10 in which was enclosed a copy of the report of the investigation held by the Panaman Government of the treatment of William T. Harrington, an American citizen, while he was serving a sentence imposed upon him in April, 1910, by the Panaman authorities for the larceny of a bottle of ginger ale, the Department desires to say that this Government has caused to be made a careful investigation of Mr. Harrington’s case, with the result that it appears to be clearly established by trustworthy evidence that he was grievously tortured by the Panaman prison authorities by means of such a confinement in stocks and exposure to the tropical sun as resulted in his distressing-physical condition at the time of his release June 2, 1910, when he came under the care of the Canal Zone medical officers. The testimony of these officers is to the effect that Mr. Harrington was then not able to walk unassisted from the dock to the dispensary at Porto Bello, a distance of about 400 feet, owing to the condition of his legs, which were greatly swollen and inflamed from knees to ankles and bore open wounds as well as well-marked depressed areas about 2½ inches wide all around. Mr. Harrington was at this time also suffering with dementia, a condition which in the opinion of the examining board could have been and probably was caused by the privation and treatment received while in the convict camp. While lie was under treatment at Colon Hospital he was laboring under the delusion that he was still confined in stocks, according to testimony of the chief of the surgical clinic at Colon Hospital who states that he “several times heard the man scream ‘Take me out,’ ‘Take me out of the stocks’ * * * He repeatedly cried that the stocks were hurting his legs.”

In respect to the death of Mr. Harrington, which took place at the hospital in the month of September following his release from imprisonment, it should be stated that the investigation of the case has [Page 1241] not conclusively established the claim that his death was caused by the maltreatment above complained of. However, the medical testimony taken by the examining board indicates that the maltreatment of Mr. Harrington probably had an important casual influence in at least hastening his death. In this connection it is to be observed that when Harrington was given a physical examination on April 20, 1910, two days prior to his arrest, the examining Canal Zone physician at Culebra found him to be an average physical man capable of doing the work of a machinist.

The widow of Harrington, Mrs. William T. Harrington of San Francisco, an American citizen, has filed with the Department a claim against the Government of Panama for $50,000 as an indemnity for the injuries suffered by her husband at the hands of the Panaman police authorities.

While this Department is not disposed to demand the sum claimed by Mrs. Harrington, it does feel that a substantial sum should he paid her. From the testimony before the Department, Mr. Harrington appears to have been an efficient marine engineer. He was at the time of his arrest employed by the Isthmian Canal Commission as a machinist at the wages of 65ȼ gold per hour.

You will present the case as stated above to the Foreign Office and say that the Department has confidence that the matter will receive sympathetic and equitable action.

The Department also directs your attention to another aspect of this affair. Reference is made to the Departments instructions15 Nos. 123 [125] of October 23, 1908, and 189 of June 24, 1909, relative to the police control of Panama and Colon and the territories and harbors adjacent thereto, and the possibility that this Government might feel it incumbent upon the United States to assume such control. The fact of the reinstatement in the Panaman police of certain police officers who were guilty of brutalities towards Americans in the U. S. S. Buffalo case suggests that similar reinstatements may have taken place in other cases where Panaman police have been dismissed for exceeding their authority by maltreating American citizens. You will discover, if possible, whether the officers guilty in the Harrington and Harrison cases (see enclosure in Mr. Marsh’s No. 34 of August 10, 1910) have been reinstated and whether like action has been taken in any other such cases that may appear in the records of the Legation. Should it transpire that any such reinstatements have been effected, you will bring the instances to the attention of the Foreign Office and state that it is the expectation of this Government that steps will be taken by Panama to render such notices unnecessary in the future.

In presenting the Harrington case you will say that however possible it may be in some cases to make prosper use of stocks for restraint of prisoners, it is incontrovertible that they can be, and in the Harrington case have been, made an instrument of torture, and that therefore this Government will not permit its citizens to be subjected to this treatment.

I am [etc.]

P. C. Knox.
  1. Not printed.
  2. For. Rel. 1909, pp. 474 and 485, respectively.