Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-12-16
LOOMS ON PANAMA
Assistant Secretary of State
 Speaks on New Republic.
NO DESIRE TO ANNEX THE COUNTRY


 @ aib1e. and He Has Done So. 1 NEW YORK, Dec 16. = Assistant Secretary of State Loomis at the dim ner of. the Quill club at the Hotel Man haitian here last night delivered the following address, which bears the au- thority of an official statement: '"The government has not desired to annex Panama and has not done so. l The president simply executed the will | of the American people, with due re gard to international law and rights. He was instructed by congress to se- cure canal route on the isthmus of Panama if possible. He waited until the adjournment of the Colombian con gress and gave the government of that country every opportunity to ratify the 1 treaty or to propose some proper meth 1 cd looking to the ratification of new 1 treaty, and the Colombian congress, in utter bad faith, rejected the treaty and adjourned.
 Tn less than a weeks time and be- fore the president could reasonably be expected to turn to grave consideration of the Nicaragua route the long expect !, ed and inevitable revolution in Pana- ma came to pass. The people arose as one man, and in thorough accord, with out the firing of single shot, unre- Lsisted, they quietly established gov l ernment of their own. They had thrice been independent, and the right of, se- cession was, believe, expressly stipu- lated in some of their constitutions.
 "The president directed our meager naval force ashore, consisting of forty marines, to do what they could to pre- serve peace, order and unimpeded | transit across the isthmus. He prompt 1 ly recognized the de facto government as soon as he learned that it was in peaceful possession of the country. This is the usual and necessary pro- ceeding. We have on many occasions recognized new governments with an equal degree of celerity and prompt ness Later the republic of Panama was given full recognition. We are acting fairly and lawfully under the treaty of 1846 The administration, am sure, has no apologies to offer for it's course.
 we were more deeply interested and more directly in the guarantee contain \ ed in the treaty of 1S46 than New Granada was or any other country. That treaty was negotiated for the purpose of securing to us certain canal ! privileges. We in turn agreed to guar antee the neutrality of the isthnus, to keep transit open and to keep foreign Rggressors at a. distance. We have carried out the letter and the spirit of our part of the agreement. We have performed generously and faithfully all of the duties laid upon us and at times greatly to our disadvantage and very great cost. Colombia, on the other hand, seems to have. shirked most of her obligations.
 'The rejection of the treaty at Bogo- ia was an unfriendly act from the viewpoint of international law. Go lombia appealed to us to enter into 1 treaty to build canal, the treaty was negotiated with her in a most liberal spirit on our part and was then reject ed by the Colombian government and congress without debate. The execu- tive branch of the government, which had negotiated it, did not try to secure its ratification. It became evident short ly after the opening of the Colombian congress in June that there was not the l least intention of ratifying the Hay Herran treaty. The belief seems to have been widely current in Bogota that the United States could not or would not build a canal by any other l than the Panama route.
 i E'It occurred to certain men in Bogo- 1 ta that the United States could be made to pay $2o.oOO,Oo or $25,000,000 in- stead of $10,OO0, ,0O0. or, better still, as has been disclosed by recent published official correspondence, if the treaty were rejected or no action taken upon it and the whole matter postponed for another year. the concession of the present French canal company having expired by that time, the renewal of that concession would be declared in- valid and all the rights, privileges and work of the French canal company i, be practically conflscated and disposed of to the United States for $40.OOo, ,O0O in addition to the $10,000,OOO as pro- posed and the annuity of $250, ,0OO. This was radiant and alluring prospect and the tempta ton proved too strong.
 Reflect for moment on the grave | possibilities which confronted fh1s gov l ernment as it peered into the future and sought to provide intelligently for the many serious complication and contingencies which the, president fore saw. If the revolution in Panama had
 not occurred, if the American people, guided by the opinions of it's most
 learned, efficient and highly trusted engineers, continued to think the Mica
 ragua route an impracticable one, if the people and congress of this country
 ha@ insisted that we wait for year or
 until such time as the politicians at
 Bogota were ready to negotiate new canal treaty and in the meantime their congress had declared invalid the re-
 newaI of the French concession, what
 might have happened on the isthmus?
 I may safely assert without fear of
 contradiction by any well informed
 person that the government of France