810.154/228

The Secretary of State to the Minister in Panamá ( Davis )

No. 31

Sir: There is being forwarded herewith the original of an instruction addressed, in care of your Legation, to Messrs. Thomas A. Forbes, D. Tucker Brown, and Marcel Bussard, Highway Engineers, who have been appointed members of a technical committee to make effective, in accordance with instructions to be issued from time to time by the Secretary of State, this Government’s cooperation with several other Governments, members of the Pan American Union, in reconnaissance surveys pertinent to the building of an inter-American highway or highways. Accompanied by Mr. E. W. James of the [Page 280] Bureau of Public Roads of the Department of Agriculture, they departed from New York on June 21 by the steamship Virginia expecting to reach Cristobal on June 27 and to call at your Legation soon after their arrival. Please deliver their instruction to them as soon as you conveniently can. A copy of it is attached hereto for your information and the files of your Legation.

There is also enclosed a copy of a proposed budget of the expenditures which it is supposed will be necessary in connection with their work during the remainder of the present year.87 You are authorized to make payments during this time, and at the same rate for eighteen months thereafter, upon vouchers approved by the chairman of the committee, consistent with such budget, and to draw on the Secretary of State for the required amounts, citing on the drafts the appropriation chargeable and rendering a separate account therefor.

You are requested to render to these gentlemen such other assistance in the performance of their duties as may be possible and proper.

In this connection your attention is especially called to the fifth, sixth and seventh paragraphs of their instruction, from which you will note that the Government to which you are accredited is not one of those which have hitherto requested this Government’s cooperation in the reconnaissance surveys and that they are, therefore, asked to refrain from offering their services to that Government until they shall be informed that this Government’s cooperation has been requested. You are instructed to bring this matter as soon as possible to the attention of the appropriate officials of the Government to which you are accredited, assuring them that your Government is, however, both willing and ready to make available its cooperation with their Government in these surveys as soon as information shall reach the Secretary of State through the Director General of the Pan American Union that such cooperation is desired. You, also, will be promptly informed thereafter and will be authorized to present the Engineers to the appropriate authorities of the Panamánian Government so that they may properly offer their services to it. If that Government’s failure to request this Government’s cooperation should have been due merely to inadvertence and should it be the desire of that Government that the cooperation should begin in the near future, the necessary preliminary correspondence can of course be attended to in a very few days by cable or by air mail.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Wilbur J. Carr
[Page 281]
[Enclosure]

The Secretary of State to the Members of the Technical Committee on the Inter-American Highway Reconnaissance Surveys 88

Sirs: In a letter dated June 19, 1930,89 the Secretary of Agriculture was requested to inform you that the President had approved your designation as members of a technical committee to make effective, in accordance with instructions which will from time to time be issued by the Secretary of State, this Government’s cooperation with several other Governments, members of the Pan American Union, in reconnaissance surveys pertinent to the building of an inter-American highway or highways. In the same communication authorization was given for making the necessary expenditures in connection with the work upon which you will be engaged. Since you are proceeding first to Panamá and since the time intervening between your appointment and your departure was insufficient for its preparation, this instruction is being addressed to you in care of the Legation of the United States at Panamá.

The following is the text of the pertinent portion of the Act of the Congress of the United States (Deficiency Act for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1930, approved by the President March 29, 1930) which has enabled the Secretary of State to make available through you, this Government’s cooperation with other interested Governments in these reconnaissance surveys:

“To enable the Secretary of State to cooperate with the several Governments, members of the Pan American Union, when he shall find that any or all of such States having [have?]90 initiated a request or signified a desire to the Pan American Union to cooperate, in the reconnaissance surveys to develop the facts and to report to Congress as to the feasibility of possible routes, the probable cost, the economic service and such other information as will be pertinent to the building of an inter-American highway or highways, to be expended upon the order of the Secretary of State, including the additional cost incident to the assignment by the President of personnel in the Government service, as now authorized, additional compensation of such personnel for foreign service, compensation of employees and rent in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, contingent expenses, official cards, printing and binding, purchase of necessary books and documents, transportation and subsistence or per diem in lieu of subsistence (notwithstanding the provisions of any other Act), stenographic and other services by contract if deemed necessary, without regard to section 3709 of the Revised Statutes (U. S. C, title 41, [Page 282] sec. 5), and such other expenses as may be deemed necessary by the Secretary of State in furtherance of the projects described, fiscal year 1930, to remain available until expended, $50,000.”91

The brief review, in this paragraph, of antecedent related events, which you may already have in mind, is inserted merely for convenience. The Sixth International Conference of American States, by a Resolution adopted at Habana on February 7, 1928,92 entrusted the Pan American Union with the preparation of projects for the construction of an inter-American highway. The Governing Board of the Pan American Union, acting through the Pan American Federation for Highway Education, requested the cooperation of the several Governments, members of the Union, in the formulation of such projects. The Congress of the United States, by a Joint Resolution, approved May 4, 1928,93 requested the President to direct the several agencies of this Government to cooperate with the other interested states in the preparation of such projects. In his annual message to Congress on December 4, 1928, the President of the United States said: “In my message last year I expressed the view that we should lend our encouragement for more good roads to all the principal points on this hemisphere south of the Rio Grande. My view has not changed.”94 He recommended that the necessary Congressional authorization for this Government’s cooperation in the project should be given. The Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States by Joint Resolution No. 104, of the 70th Congress, approved by the President on March 4, 1929,95 “authorized to be appropriated, out of any moneys in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, the sum of $50,000 to enable the Secretary of State to cooperate with the several Governments”, etc., following almost verbatim the language of the Appropriation Act of a year later which is quoted above. At the invitation of the Government of Panamá, the delegation of the United States returning from the Second Pan American Highway Congress, which had been held at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from August 16 to August 28, 1929, attended a conference at Panamá from October 7 to 12 with representatives of the Canal Zone, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panamá, for the purpose of considering the measures to be taken to complete an international highway from the United [Page 283] States to Panamá. After a full discussion the conference adopted several resolutions. A copy of a document containing them is enclosed for your convenience.96 It was the sentiment of the conference, you will observe, that a highway should be opened between Panamá and the United States within five years and that in order to expedite this work, the Pan American Union should appoint an Inter-American Highway Commission whose task it should be to make a field study of the project; and all Governments interested were requested to cooperate with the Union and the Commission in this task.

The enactment of the legislation, quoted in the second paragraph above, appropriating funds to meet the expense of its participation in the projected reconnaissance surveys, is one of the important steps recently taken by this Government in the requested cooperation. Another is your designation as the agency through which the Secretary of State is to make effective this Government’s cooperation in these surveys. In this connection it is appropriate to allude to the fact that, on May 27, 1930, the President affixed his approval to the Act passed by the Congress of the United States (No. 269, 71st Congress)97 to authorize and provide for the construction and operation of a ferry across the Panamá Canal and a highway across the Canal Zone, which were also recommended by the Inter-American Highway Conference at Panamá last October, as will be seen by referring to the enclosed copy of the text of the Resolutions of that conference. A copy of the legislation just referred to is also enclosed.96

The Director General of the Pan American Union has informed the Department of State that the Governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua have expressed a desire to have reconnaissance surveys undertaken to determine the most desirable route for the proposed inter-American highway across their respective territories. The chiefs of the diplomatic missions of this Government in those countries had previously informed the Department that they had been apprised of the fact that those Governments had taken the steps mentioned. The steps taken by these two Governments appear to have complied fully with the conditions which the Act appropriating the $50,000 and also the Act approved March 4, 1929, authorizing such an appropriation make a necessary prerequisite to the Secretary of State’s cooperating with the other interested Governments in these reconnaissance surveys. Referring to the resolution adopted by the Inter-American Highway Conference at Panamá recommending the creation of an Inter-American Highway [Page 284] Commission, the Director General also stated that, in accordance with the terms of that resolution, the Governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Panamá had designated their representatives on that Commission. The actions just mentioned appear to indicate that these four Governments also expect to cooperate in the construction of the inter-American highway; but the Director General has not yet informed the Department that any Governments other than Guatemala and Nicaragua have actually requested this Government’s cooperation in the reconnaissance surveys.

In view of the fact that the Act approved March 29, 1930, quoted in the second paragraph above, which makes available the appropriation for the reconnaissance surveys, and also the Joint Resolution approved on March 4, 1929, authorizing such an appropriation both clearly contemplate that the cooperation of the Secretary of State in the reconnaissance surveys shall be made available only when the other interested Governments shall have “initiated a request or signified a desire to the Pan American Union” for such cooperation, and since this Government has of course no desire to participate in the contemplated reconnaissance surveys in any country whose Government has not unmistakably indicated a desire to have this Government’s participation, you are instructed to offer your services, for the present at least, only to the two Governments mentioned above as having complied fully with the conditions made by law a necessary prerequisite to the Secretary of State’s making available this Government’s cooperation. As soon as the Director General shall have informed the Secretary of State that the other interested Governments, or any of them, have requested this Government’s cooperation, you will be promptly informed and will be instructed to offer your services also to them. The chief of this Government’s diplomatic mission in each of the countries concerned whose Governments have not hitherto requested this Government’s cooperation is being instructed to embrace an early opportunity to bring this matter to the attention of the appropriate authorities of the Government to which he is accredited, assuring them that his Government is both willing and ready to make available its cooperation with their Government in these surveys as soon as information shall reach the Secretary of State through the Director General of the Pan American Union that such cooperation is desired. To the Minister at Panamá it is being suggested that if that Government’s failure to request this Government’s cooperation should have been due merely to inadvertence and should it be the desire of that Government that the cooperation should begin in the near future the necessary preliminary correspondence can of course be attended to in a very few days by cable or by air mail.

[Page 285]

Before offering your services to any interested Government, or any official thereof, you are instructed to call upon the chief of the diplomatic mission of the United States at the capital of the country concerned in order that you may be properly introduced to the appropriate officials of that Government. The chief of each such diplomatic mission is being apprised of the fact that you have been designated and instructed to make effective this Government’s cooperation with the Government to which he is accredited, in case, or as soon as, such cooperation shall have been requested. He is also being informed that you will call upon him before establishing any official relations with the Government to which he is accredited; and he is being instructed to introduce you to the proper authorities and to render to you such other assistance as may be possible and proper.

You are instructed to submit written reports to the Secretary of State from time to time, through the diplomatic mission of the United States at the capital of the country where you may be at the time each report is made, regarding your progress in the performance of the task which has been entrusted to you. These progress reports should be submitted not less frequently than once every three months; and they may be made as much more frequently as you may deem it desirable to make them. If, as it is understood you contemplate doing, you establish and maintain an office for your headquarters at or near the city of Panamá, the Legation of the United States at that capital will of course be the medium through which you will communicate with the Secretary of State, not only while cooperating with the Government of that country, should you be informed that it has requested your cooperation, but also while establishing your headquarters, if they are to be in that country or the Canal Zone, and, also, should there be such a time, whenever you shall not actually be engaged in cooperation with the Government of any other country.

A copy of this instruction is being attached to the instruction which, as indicated above, is being addressed to the Minister at Panamá. A copy of the budget which was enclosed with the letter addressed to the Secretary of State on June 7, 1930, by the Secretary of Agriculture, requesting your appointment, is also being sent to the Legation at Panamá and the Minister is being authorized to make payments, upon vouchers approved by the chairman of your committee consistent with such budget, and to draw on the Secretary of State for the required amounts.

Copies of this instruction to you are also being enclosed with the instructions which are being sent to the chiefs of the diplomatic missions of this country in Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.99 Copies of the same are also being [Page 286] furnished to the Director General of the Pan American Union and to the Secretary of Agriculture for the Chief of the Bureau of Public Roads.

Upon completion of your task and your return to the United States you should reasonably promptly submit to the Secretary of State three copies of a comprehensive report of your entire work, one for the records of the Department and two for communication by the Secretary of State to Congress in compliance with the provisions of the law, quoted above, authorizing and making provision for the work.

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:
Wilbur J. Carr
  1. Not printed.
  2. Thomas A. Forbes, Senior Highway Engineer; D. Tucker Brown, Senior Highway Engineer; and Marcel Bussard, Associate Highway Engineer.
  3. Not printed.
  4. Brackets appear in the original instruction.
  5. 46 Stat. 90, 115.
  6. See Report of the Delegates of the United States of America to the Sixth International Conference of American States, Held at Habana, Cuba, January 16 to February 20, 1928, With Appendices (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1928), pp. 36, 282; and Sixth International Conference of American States, Havana, 1928, Final Act, Motions, Agreements, Resolutions (Habana, 1928), p. 14.
  7. 45 Stat. 490.
  8. Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. xviii .
  9. 45 Stat. 1697.
  10. Not printed.
  11. 46 Stat 388.
  12. Not printed.
  13. The instructions were sent on July 22 to the American diplomatic missions in Costa Rica (No. 21), El Salvador (No. 96), Guatemala (No. 22), Honduras (No. 13), Nicaragua (No. 40); and on July 23 to Mexico (No. 1192).