411.19 L 22/961

The Secretary of State to the Panaman Chargé (Lefevre)

Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your communication D–238 dated June 6, 1921, and refers to its note of February 16, 1921, written in reply to your communication D–No. 67 dated February 8, 1921, in which, under instructions from your Government and on the ground that the Government of the United States [Page 621] had lately taken over private property on Taboga Island and in Las Minas Bay, Province of Colon, you made application for the reestablishment of the Mixed Claims Commission referred to in Articles 6 and 15 of the Treaty of 1903.

The matter has since been taken up with the appropriate branch of this Government, and it is found that the expense of a Joint Commission is not warranted by the value of the private property taken over. It is believed, moreover, that any claims now pending or that may arise can be settled satisfactorily, speedily, and economically through diplomatic channels without the operation of a Joint Commission.

Accept [etc.]

Charles E. Hughes