Foreign Relations of the United States: Diplomatic Papers, 1944, The American Republics, Volume VII

819.154/699

Memorandum by Mr. Robert G. McGregor, Division of Caribbean and Central American Affairs ²

[ Washington ,] January 4, 1944.

The attached letter³ from Mr. MacDonald of the PEA⁴ sets the stage for final decisions which will result in the completion of the Madden Dam cut off, the P–8 Highway and the spur running southwest from Panama City to Pacora.⁵

Briefly the PRA states:

(1). Total cost of finishing these projects is estimated at $3,231,252. PRA has available for this work $900,000. It has sufficient machinery, lacks cement and some labor.

(2). War Department should decide that these three projects are of military necessity in which event PEA hopes War will make available the $2,331,252 required to insure completion.

(3). Stage is set for such decisions on part of War Department. Commanding General has rescinded his stop order of last April and recommended priority in following order:

1. Madden Dam cut off

2. P–8 Highway (Roque to Pueblo Nuevo)

3. Pacora Road

(4). Mr. MacDonald has seized the opportunity afforded by present discussion to include the Rio Hato-Chorrera Highway among roads to be declared of military necessity. He wishes to establish War Department’s responsibility for financing completion and maintenance during war and six months after war.

(5). If we can secure all-round agreement for recommendations of PRA we can be assured that all United States obligations with regard to roads mentioned in Defense Sites Agreement of May 18, 1942,⁷ are met.

(6). We will then be in a position to reply in a thoroughly satisfactory manner to the inquiry made of the Embassy by the Panamanian Foreign Office by note of November 5 which the Chargé referred to the Department.⁸

I, therefore, recommend that we arrange for a meeting in Mr. Bonsal’s office of representatives of the War Department, the PRA, the WPB⁹ and State Department in order to reach a definite agreement to complete this program during current dry season (January–June 1944).

2. Addressed to Philip W. Bonsal, Chief, Division of the American Republics, and John M. Cabot, Assistant Chief of the Division.
3. Not printed.
4. Thomas H. MacDonald, Commissioner, Public Roads Administration.
5. According to a statement from the Commercial Attaché in Panama, May 5, 1944, the Panama to Madden Dam section of the Trans-Isthmian Highway was under construction while the section from Madden Dam to Colón was complete. Originally the P–8 and the Madden Dam cutoff were referred to as part of the Trans-Isthmian Highway. The Pacora Road was planned to connect the city of Panamá with three airfields, La Jolla One, Two, and Three. (810.154/3307)
7. Department of State Executive Agreement Series No. 359; 57 Stat. (pt. 2) 1232. For correspondence on the agreement, see Foreign Relations, 1942, vol. vi, pp. 597 ff.
8. Note not printed: copy transmitted to the Department in despatch 4900, December 2, 1943, from Panamá.
9. War Production Board.