819.6156 T 61/4: Telegram
The Minister in Panama (South) to the Secretary of State
[Received 2:53 p.m.]
21. The Tonosí contract was approved by the Assembly yesterday. I handed a note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs yesterday afternoon requesting a definite statement that any concession granted to the Tonosí Fruit Company for the erection of wireless station was subject [to] existing arrangement with the United States as embodied in the decree of 1914, and further requesting that similar statement be conveyed to the company. He seemed willing to furnish such a statement and promised a formal written reply in the near future. I have also obtained from the local representative of United Fruit Company a written statement recognizing that the company is “specifically bound with respect to any wireless station in Panama” by the agreement of 1914. [Paraphrase.] Governor of the Panama Canal17 in a further letter to me states that he does not desire to object to the construction of the Tonosí railroad. He feels, however, that the attention of the Government of Panama should be invited to the fact that the concession of the Panama Railroad Company gives the company the exclusive right to construct railways on the Isthmus of Panama. In order to safeguard the interests of the United States in the future it might be advisable for this Legation to present a note to the Government of Panama setting forth that the failure of the United States to protest in this case should not be regarded as a relinquishment by the Panama Railroad Company of any rights claimed under its concessions. Instructions desired. [End paraphrase.]
- M. L. Walker, also president of the Panama Railroad Company.↩