The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1908-12-12
PANAMANIANS TO.
BE INSTRUCTED
BY ROOSEVELT
Will Show Republic How to Run
Police Force.
CRUISERS ARRIVE TODAY.
Assaults Upon American Sailors
While on Shore Leave Have
Been Too Frequent

Washington Dec. 12.-President
Roosevelt is going to give the Repub-
lie Of Panama an object lesson in the
proper way to handle a police force,
and incidentally show !! how to take
care of the safety and welfare Of
strangers within its jurisdiction He
will do it with the men of the eight
armored cruisers who are scheduled
to arrive at Panama on Saturday
For ten days during which the
cruisers will remain in Panama their
men will have practical charge of the
policing of the city, whether the
Panamanians like It or not, and it is
expected that there will be no repeti-
ton Of the assaults upon American
sailormen which have been altogether
too numerous In Panama heretofore
and which in the opinion OF the gov
eminent, have gone without adequate
punishment
For more than a year there has been
more or less friction between this
country and Panama over the manner
in which our sailormen had been
treated while on shore liberty in the
cities OF the isthmus republic There
has hardly been a liberty party ashore
that has not had some sort of difficulty
with the Panamanians and in several
cases assaults have been committed.
some OF which resulted in the killing
Of Americans
Citizens Promote Disturbances
The Administration recognizes, of
course, Che fact that sailormen a.
shore on liberty are likely to 20 wide
a bit and the Administration Is not
surprised TO receive reports of brawls
Of one kind and another where the
sailormen are concerned
The President has been DESTROYS OF
having the Panama Government, sir
up the Police Department OF tha City
OF Panama, so that there could he a
reasonable reliance placed hpo9 il 20
do an that is possible to prevent such
disturbances and also TO arrest and
punish citizens Of Panama who are
shown to be az fault when trouble
does occur.
10 IS only few weeks since an
American sailor was stabbed BOO fight
IN Panama and died grom the wound
The Panamanlan officials have not
taken adequate measure to punish the
assailant Of the sailor, and the State
Department has been unable TO secure
satisfactory assurances from Pana
ma concerning the discipline of On,
city police officials responsible foI
the lack OF order
First Squadron Of Pacific Fleet
The eight cruisers that are To- maxi,
the call at Panama constitute the hrsr
squadron OF the Pacific neet. mdci
command OF Rear Admiral William r
Swmburuc. They are the West Vir
ginia. Maryland. Pennsylvania an,
Colorado constituting the first dIyis
ion OF the squadron under the I'm
mediate command OF Admiral Swim
bume. and the Tennessee. Washing
ton, California. aud South Dakota
constituting the second division 90
the squadron. under Rear Admira
Urlel Scbree These ships music
about 500 men each IN their crews
making "a total of In The ncI-hhor
I hood OF 5000 men. The great iuo
iority Of these men will bc entitled ID
shore liberty at Panama.
The ships have just completed th'i
| Fan target practice in MagdaIcua Ba.
and since the FIRST OF this month ha''
been cruising down the Mexican ant
Central American Coast, stopping a
various ports for brief cats 'u h
way It is the regular practice cruis
Of the squadron and will be continues
as FAR south as Calico, where tw
weeks will be spent the latter part q
January and FIRST Of February. The
the ships will turn north again an
make another call at Panama fror
| Feb. 20 to March 4, when they will n
turn TO Magdalena Bay for the sprin
target practice.
It Is the Presidents expectatio
that the demonstration given on III
occasion Of this call will be sud'oler
warning to the Panama authorities 8
that Il viii not be necessary to r.
peat the programme at the sprin
call.