Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1908-12-15

tablishes that the only party dea.-
with was the New Panama Canal com
pany CT France with the concurrence
of the liquidator of the old company
and not any American corporation or
syndicate. The action of 1he United
States government was, of course
wholly uninfiuenced by. and had
nothing whatever to do with, any
question as to who were. or who had
been, the security holders of either of
the new or the old company. Who
such security holders were was not
our affair.
III, as a matter of fact, the canal
companies, either or both, had been
owned by American citizens or by citi-
ZenS of any other nationality, it would
not have altered in the slightest de.
gree the action taken by this govern.
nIent. Our concern was to get the
canal property which was owned by
the French company, and to see that
the title was clear. Our transactions
were carried on openly, and were pub.
lished in detail, and we dealt solely
ESQ far as the interests of the old Pan.
ANA company were concerned) with
| the liquidator appointed by the Lrop.
or French governmental body, the
| civil tribunal of the Seine and in &C
cordance with the decree of this same
| tribunal, with the New Panama Canal
company, which also went into liquida
ton upon the sale to the United
| States. All our transactions were car
| ried OH openly and were published in
| detail.
I, Payment Followed Award.
| The distribution of our payment OF
100000 600 followed the award of ar,
bitrators chosen by the new company
and the liquidator, authorized by the
decree of this same old tribunal of the
| Seine and providing for determine
ton of the proportionate division be
tween the new and old companies. We
paid the money through the New York
banking house of Messrs. J. p. Nor
gan & Co., acting as fiscal agents OF
this government, into the Bank oil
France in Paris. The receipts and &C
counts of our treasury department
show the payment of the money into
the Bank of France and account fol-
the money being paid over to the liz
uidatOr appointed by the civil tribunal
of the Seine and to the New Panama
Canal company of France, the proper
ton of the S40,0O0,000 being 12S,6OO,
600 francs to the liquidator of the ole
company and 77,400,000 francs to the
New Panama Canal company o.
France in liquidation.
In these payments we followed tC
the letter the decree of the govern
mental tribunal of France, which hat
the authority to make such a decree
the civil tribunal of the Seine. We
had neither desire nor authority to g
behind this decree of this proper gov
ernmental body, as all the conflicting
rights of the security holders of boil
companies had been settled by the de
cree of the said court by ratification o
the arbitration which resulted in tina
division.
Followed Out the Award.
wish to make as clear as posi-
BILE and as emphatic as possible tn,
statement that we did not have any
thing to do with the distribution of ;
dollar of the s40,000,000 we paid as re
CARDS any stakeholder or bondholde
of the French companies; save that W.
followed out the award of the French
court which had dealt with the subjec
in awarding certain proportion t,
the old company and a certain proper
ton to the new company. Any ques
ton concerning the stockholders, bond
holders or other beneficiaries of tn
proceeds of the sale was purely ques
ton for the civil tribunal of the Seine
; the French governmental body, wit
which this nation had nothing what
ever to do.
Under these circumstances Their
was not the slightest need for MI
Cromwell to give any information o.