File No. 819.77/288

Minister Price to the Secretary of State

[Extract]
No. 1513

Sir: I have the honor to report that the Panaman President has issued a decree perfecting legal technicalities necessary prior to the issuance of the $750,000 balance of bonds remaining after the completion of the Pedregal-David-Coneeption-Boquete Railway, better known as the Chiriqui Railway, for the construction of the branch line to same in which Mr. W. C. Staton and Messrs. Eccles, Browning and others of the Amalgamated Sugar interests of Utah are interested. I enclose a copy and translation of the decree. The Panaman authorities are preparing to have surveys made and preliminary work carried out apparently with promptness. Mr. W. C. Staton has recently been here urging action on the part of the Government.

I have [etc.]

Wm. Jennings Price
[Inclosure—Translation]

Decree No. 69 of 1917 (of August 8) by which is dictated a regulation concerning the issuance of bonds of the Chiriqui National Railroad

The President of the Republic, using the powers given him, and considering:

1.
That there are deposited with the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company of New York seven hundred and fifty bonds of one thousand dollars each, part of the total issue of three million dollars created by the trust document made November 2, 1914, by the Government of the Republic on the one part and by the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company and William Nelson Cromwell, trustees, on the other;
2.
That the said bonds are signed with the lithographed signature of the then President of the Republic, Dr. Belisario Porras, and with the autographed signature of the then Minister in Washington, Dr. Eusebio A. Morales; and that it is necessary that the signatures of said gentlemen be adopted by decree of the Executive Power in order that the bonds may be issued in conformity with Article 1 of the trust document;
3.
That registered bonds Nos. 125 to 300 are in the same situation; decrees:
  • Article 1. There are declared adopted by the Government as perfect for emission coupon bonds Nos. 2251 to 3000 inclusive, and registered bonds Nos. 125 to 300 inclusive, which are deposited with the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company of New York, and which form part of the total emission of three million dollars created by the trust document signed in New York November 2, 1914, by Dr. Eusebio A. Morales, Minister of the Republic in the United States of America, in his character of special delegate of The Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, and William Nelson Cromwell.
  • Article 2. For the effects of the preceding article and in conformity with the first clause of the trust document, there are adopted the signatures of Dr. Belisario Porras, then President of the Republic, and of Dr. Eusebio A. Morales, the Minister in Washington and special delegate, as sufficient to give validity to said bonds on the date on which they may be issued and the same as if said gentlemen were at present or on the day the issue may be made filling the offices which they filled when the bonds were signed.
  • Article 3. Let an original copy of this decree be sent to the trustees for its corresponding effects.

Let this be published and communicated.

Given in Panama this eighth day of August 1917.

  • Ramon M. Valdes
    The Secretary of Finance and Treasury,
  • Aurelio Guardia