in connection with any other work than that of winding up its business in Nicaragua, the Emery Company shall be liable for all loss or damage occurring during such use, the total value of either or both of said boats, in case of loss or damage, to be estimated at the sum or sums named as the value of such boat or boats in the inventory of the Emery Company.

9. The Government of Nicaragua agrees and undertakes that within fifteen days of written notification thereto by the said George D. Emery Company or its representatives, the said Government or its duly authorized representative will receive, accept and take charge of all such parts of the plant and equipment of the said Company as said Company may indicate its readiness to surrender, as provided in this protocol, and that in the event the said Government or its duly authorized representative fails to accept, take charge of, and receive all or any parts of said plant and equipment within fifteen days from the date of notification as above specified, that then and in that event the George D. Emery Company shall be relieved from all responsibility for the further safe and proper keeping and maintenance of said property thus notified to be delivered.

In witness whereof, the undersigned have hereunto set their hands and seals this eighteenth day of September, 1909.

PANAMA.

ATTITUDE OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD REVOLUTIONISTS IN PANAMA.

File No. 5025/76.

The Secretary of State to Minister Squiers.

[Telegram-Paraphrase.]

Washington, March 19, 1909.

Mr. Knox informs Mr. Squiers that Minister Dawson advises the department that information has reached Bogota that Colombian and Venezuelan revolutionists at Panama are preparing expeditions against Colombia and Venezuela. Mr. Knox says that so far as Panama and the United States are concerned if this report should be true it would be most untoward; that the American Government feels it to be the duty of Panama to see to it that her territory be not abused by alien refugees, and that any attempt at organization or any exportation of arms by them for unneutral purposes should be prevented. Mr. Knox says further that the United States naval force at Panamá and Colon will upon occasion cooperate to prevent such acts against the peace of another friendly State.

SIR: Referring to department's cipher cable of March 21 [19] last respecting the movements of certain alleged revolutionists against Venezuela and Colombia, I have the honor to advise the department that on receipt of cable I immediately called at the palace and laid before the President your views and apprehensions. The President replied that he already knew of the propaganda through his police authorities, but did not believe the situation was dangerous; that the revolutionists were without influence, standing, or funds. One of them, — he thought, was the only man of position. He is reported to have $30,000 for revolutionary purposes.

I pointed out to the President the dangers to his country and their present interests if these men are permitted to remain here, plotting against the Government of friendly, neighboring States.

I advised that those who threatened the peace of one country and the interests of the other merited expulsion, and that that solution would probably be considered by Colombia a very friendly act on the

part of Panama. The President thought well of the suggestion, but feared there was no law that would warrant or justify such action. Since then he has informed me that the question of expulsion will be considered at the next cabinet meeting. He further desired me to assure you that he fully appreciates the situation, and being in close touch, through the police authorities, with the revolutionists, will frustrate any efforts on their part to recruit, to fit out an expedition, or to export arms to Colombia; and also expressed for President Reyes and the Colombian Government the warmest sentiments of friendship and good will.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 456, of the 25th ultimo, reporting your interview with the President of Panama regarding the presence in that republic of - and other alleged revolutionists against the Governments of Venezuela and Colombia. In reply I have to say that it is apparently the purpose of revolutionists against both Venezuela and Colombia to make the territory of Panama a headquarters for operations against the respective countries. With a Venezuelan nucleus already established there, as would appear from your dispatch, it is not at all unlikely that Señor Castro had in view the possible establishment of headquarters there where he could receive arms and munitions from any quarter and where he would severely test the ability of the Panaman Government to preserve strict neutrality. In that case it would be pertinent for the United States to consider what relations we would bear to the question in the light of our treaty with Panama. The first article of the treaty in terms guarantees the independence of Panama against all enemies. This being so we have a moral right to prevent Panama from getting into a controversy with any government which might eventually require the United States to take part in the controversy and support Panama. It certainly was not contemplated that Panama was at liberty to enter upon any wrongful quarrel on the assurance that she would have the support of the United States. Moreover, the relation of Panama to the Canal Zone is to be considered as well as our right to protect that zone from any disturbances or violations of international law on its immediate border. We have asserted the right to see that nothing shall occur to disturb the tranquility in the adjacent Panaman territory, as, for instance, in our supervision of the recent elections to insure orderly fairness. If Colombian revolutionists plot in Panama against the peace of Colombia, or if the Castro Venezuelans make Panaman territory a base of operations to disturb the internal tranquility of Venezuela, with which Republic the United States are in relations of peace, and if Panama is unable or unwilling to discharge the duty of neutrality which she owes as much

to the United States as to the law of nations, we should have the moral right to intervene and procure neutrality.

You state that the President of Panama said that he feared that there was no law to warrant or justify the expulsion from the Republic of those who threatened the peace of friendly foreign States and thus imperiled the interests of the State of their asylum.

It is the understanding of this department that the expulsion of such conspirators is recognized by all Latin-American States as an indefeasible right of sovereign self-protection, needing no law for its exercise and prohibited by no law.

From a telegram of April 10 from Col. Goethals to the War Department the department is glad to infer that the administration of President Obaldia is in entirely substantial accord with the view of the United States as to the proper attitude toward revolutionists in such circumstances as Messrs. Castro and Angulo.

I am, etc.,

P. C. KNOX.

PROTEST OF THE MINISTER OF PANAMA AGAINST CERTAIN UTTERANCES MADE IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES.

File No. 17900/4.

No. 3.]

The Panaman Minister to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF PANAMA, Washington, February 8, 1909. EXCELLENCY: Under instructions from his excellency the secretary of foreign affairs of my Government and pursuant to resolutions unanimously adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Panama on the 1st instant, I am directed to call the attention of your excellency's Government to two public addresses delivered in the House of Representatives of your National Congress by one of its Members on the 26th and 29th days of January last, which addresses constitute a direct attack upon the President of my country, as well as upon the fair name and administration of the Republic of Panama, and to convey to your excellency the solemn and emphatic protest of my Government against said attacks and this violation of international courtesy.

My Government and its people justly and naturally resent the baseless and unwarranted attacks upon their President contained in these public and official speeches of a member of your Government delivered in the National Congress of the United States of America. It is unnecessary for me to say to your excellency that through years of intimacy and association my countrymen have the most implicit faith in the personal integrity, official uprightness, and disinterested patriotism of their present honored President.

My Government and its people also feel that they have additional cause for exception by reason of the publication of the speeches referred to in the official organ of your excellency's Government, the Congressional Record, by which, in addition to their appearance in

the public press, official circulation has been given to these wholly baseless and highly offensive statements, and they have been communicated to the nations of the world with apparently official sanction, to the great humiliation of my Government and its people.

It is with surprise that my Government also notes that measures solely concerning the Republic of Panama and pending before its legislative body were at the same time made the subject of official discussion and opprobrious criticism in a legislative body of your excellency's Government, and this, too, with the declared purpose of inducing action by the House of Representatives of the United States, designed to influence the action of the National Assembly of my country. My Government further deplores the adverse comments contained in said official addresses of said Member of the House of Representatives upon the treaties pending between the United States, Panama, and Colombia which were concluded on January 9 last, and which criticisms tend to affect their ultimate ratification.

The Republic of Panama is bound to that of your excellency, not only by ties of fraternity and by fervid admiration for its institutions, but also by the inseparable bond of a common interest in the Panama Canal located within its boundaries, and it is a source of profound regret to my Government and myself that cccasion has arisen for calling attention to the occurrences to which I have referred, but their character is so extraordinary that even the warm devotion of my country to that of your excellency does not permit my Government to disregard them.

Your excellency will note that I am instructed to include in the protest the counsel of this legation and fiscal commissioner of Panama in this country. I have not referred to him in the foregoing protest, solely in deference to his request that I refrain from so doing, since he, as a citizen of the United States, does not desire that any foreign Government should intervene in his behalf. I should, however, fail in my duty if I did not express the perfect confidence of my Government and people in his personal integrity and official uprightness, and, in the name of my Government, absolutely deny the truth of any of the injurious statements in the addresses to which I have referred, concerning his relations or transactions with my Government or any member of it.

In conclusion, I beg to submit to your excellency, with this letter of protest, extract of a cablegram of instructions from his excellency the minister of foreign affairs of my Government and the text of the resolution before mentioned as adopted by the National Assembly of the Republic of Panama on the 1st instant, and copies of the Congressional Record containing the speeches and remarks to which I have referred, and finally I have the honor to request of your excellency's Government such disavowal of the offensive remarks, concerning the President of the Republic of Panama, as may be deemed just and commensurate with the deep and unwarranted injury inflicted on His Excellency Sr. José Domingo de Obaldía, President of the Republic of Panama.

I improve the opportunity,etc.,

C. C. AROSEMENA.