File No. No. 763.72112/10814
The Minister in Panama ( Price) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 20.]
Sir: In accordance with the Department’s cablegram of October 18, 9 p.m., that it would seem advisable that in the trading with the enemy act under consideration by Panama provisions be included authorizing land holdings to be sold and title conveyed, I have submitted to the Panaman Foreign Office an amended bill, containing these provisions. Maj. Ira K. Wells, Judge Advocate on the staff of Brig. Gen. R. M. Blatchford, commanding the Panama Canal Department, had charge of drawing the amendments after my presentation of the matter to him. I have the honor to enclose (enclosure No. 11) a copy of my note to Secretary Lefevre submitting them. I enclose also (enclosure No. 21) a copy of the proposed bill, including said additions. They are incorporated as sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 in the draft of the bill which constitutes a part of enclosure No. 1 with my despatch No. 1923 of April 24, 1918,1 which was corrected by the incorporation of the subsection reported in my despatch No. 2109 of September 30, 1918.1 With these additions inserted under the section numbers mentioned, section No. 5 in the draft accompanying said despatch No. 1923 becomes section 15 in the present draft.
I now refer to another despatch in this mail1 relating to the steps being taken to sell for taxes and lawyers’ fees the lands on Puerto Piñas Bay, which have been owned by Germans under the name of the Balboa & Pacific Estates Co., Ltd., and managed by Augusto Dzuik, now an inmate of an internment camp in the United States.
With the very satisfactory progress of the war in late weeks the question has presented itself as to whether further steps along the line of this bill were worth while, but in view of the protracted length of time required to put through any measure like this in Panama, it seemed just as well to submit it, and, if passed, to decide [Page 399] later whether we thought best to put into motion the machinery making efficient the work of the alien property custodian.
It will be noted that his selection is to be by President of Panama, “with the concurrence of the Chairman of the War Trade Board of the United States.”
I have [etc.]