Office of the Historian

File No. 419.11H23/23.

Minister Dodge to the Secretary of State.

No. 432.]
American Legation,
Panama, May 1, 1913.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department’s instruction No. 107 of March 3 last, relative to [etc.], and to inform you that on March 14, the day following its receipt, I addressed a communication to Señor Lefevre, Minister for Foreign Affairs, presenting this case to him as stated in the Department’s instruction. I have subsequently referred to it to Señor Lefevre on several occasions and although he has now promised that I will shortly receive his reply, I have not as yet received it.

Regarding the other aspect of this matter, namely as to whether any of the policemen guilty in this case, that of S. H. Harrison or the U. S. S. Buffalo case may possibly have been reinstated in the police, I immediately made a thorough investigation with the assistance of the Canal Zone police. The result of this investigation is that none of the policemen dismissed for exceeding their authority by maltreating American citizens in these cases are now serving in the Panaman police. The present employment of these men, so far as has been ascertained, is the following:

1.
Police Lieutenant Luis Hernandez, dismissed in connection with the William T. Harrington case: now employed as a trader on the San Blas coast;
2.
Policeman No. 125, dismissed in connection with the S. H. Harrison case; name not definitely ascertained but probably “Rodriguez”; whereabouts unknown but certainly not in police;
3.
Policemen Paulino Macias, Abelardo Bustos, Indalecio Franco, Emilio Linares and Faustino Alverado, all dismissed in connection with the U. S. S. Buffalo case, three of whom I reported to have been reinstated, were subsequently again dismissed at the request of the Department; the first now employed in the office of the Minister for Public Works at Panama; the second, whereabouts unknown but not in the police; the third employed in the saloon “Flor Español,” Panama; the fourth employed by Pinel Brothers, Panama; and the fifth employed by Brandon Brothers, Panama.

So far as I have been able to ascertain the three cases above mentioned are the only ones in which policemen have been dismissed for maltreating Americans.

I have [etc.]

H. Percival Dodge.
[Inclosure.]

Minister Dodge to the Secretary for Foreign Relation.

No. 307.]
American Legation,
Panama, March 14, 1913.

Excellency: My Government instructs me to refer to the esteemed communication of your excellency’s predecessor, Señor don Federico Boyd, No. 330, dated January 20, 1911, in which was enclosed a copy of the investigation held by the Panaman Government regarding the treatment of Mr. 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 [Page 1243] ginger ale, and in this connection desires me to say that it has caused to be made a careful investigation of Mr. Harrington’s case, [and so on, in the language of instruction No. 107 of March 3, to the paragraph ending “wages of 65ȼ gold per hour.”]

In presenting this case to your excellency my Government instructs me to say that it has confidence that the matter will receive sympathetic and equitable action and that however possible it may be in some cases to make proper use of stocks for the 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 my Government will not permit its citizens to be subjected to this treatment.

I avail [etc.]

H. Percival Dodge.