The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1921-04-04
Panama VI ants
 No Meddliing
 In Her Affairs

Panama March 29.-The hostilitfes with Costa Rica over disputed border territory, which began last month and evoked an admonition from the United States government, broke just at the right moment for the admin istration Of President Be1isario Por- ras to attempt to utilize them in it's campaign to assure the isthmian re- public the right to conduct it's af- fairs without foreign interference. A national spirit has been deveI- oping in Panama since November 3, 1903, when for the fifth and last time, Panama declared her independence It was hardly perceptible during the first decade of the republics exist ance, but in his CIV Years mes sage of January 1, 1921, President of his administration that the time was ripe for Panama to stand alone. Protests to the State Department at Washington over the taking of land by the American government for canal defense purposes was the first step in the independence program. The Porras administration asserted that the occupation of territory un- der the HayVarilla treaty should be conSummated through regular diplo- matic channels and that, if the Unit ed States government continued it's present policy to its logical conclu- sion, it could swallow the entire re- public without pausing to notify the victim.
 These protests, aimed at the utf1i- zation of points on Taboga Island, on the Pacific side, and on the Ba- hia de las Minas, on the Caribbean shore, were almost simultaneous with a protest against written opinion by Judge John w. Hanan of the United States District court of the Canal Zone, in which the court stated Panama occupied the position of a DrotectoraIe of the United States. President Porras declared that he counted on the support of Latin American republics in this protest.
 The next incident upon which the POrraS administration took a decided stand for a free hand in running the republic came during the last week in February, when the President, in an interview given the Associated. Press, amt unced that he had decided to name a Panamanian to succeed Addison T. Ruan. American, as ifs cal agent. During the incumbency of MT. Ruan the republic had piled up a surplus of S2,5O0,O0O, which the administration intended to utilize in an extensive road building program. In this connection the president said:
 ''The American Minister, William Jennings Brice, is opposed to the ap- pointment of a Panamanian citizen, claiming we must appoint a. candidate
  This question seems to be connected with the termination of the contract with the International Banking Cor poration as depository sof the govern ment'S funds and treasury receipts, which I have decided not to renew because we have a national bank managed today by a very efficient manager and which is in a prosper ouS condition"
 Immediately after this interview, it +h-+ +b had awarded road building contracts to two companies, one North Ameri- can and the other Panamanian, in a program involving the expenditure of about $7,UUO,OoO.
 Even while the president and the American minister were conferring g over the affair of the fiscal agent, Costa Rican forces, on February 21, occupied the small town of Coto, on Golfo Dulce, the most extreme Paci- fife side frontier point of Panama Without following the 1S-year-old custom of advising the United States authorities, the president dispatched a force of national police from Pan ana to disIodge the alleged invaders.
 In official American quarters here it was noted that Panama'S deter imitation to live her own life mani fested itself at a time when the na- tional administration at Washington was changing and that it was mark
 
 can representatives of the steps taken to preserve Panamas territorial in tegrity, even though the United States guaranteed this integrity in the canal treaty
 Despite efforts to keep the expe- dition secret, the American authori- ties learned of the movements of the two Central American governments promptly and in advance of most of the residents of Panama
 The prompt dispatch of American warships to Bocas del Toro and the note sent to Panama and Costa Rica by Secretary of State Hughes on March calling a halt in the hos tilties came as a shock to plans of the Panama administration to settle the dispute over Costa Rica single handed.
 The situation in Panama prior to the retirement of the Costa ~Rican forces from the territory they had seized was in many respects similar to that prevailing in Mexico before the fall O. fCarranza, where the gov ernment sought to hold public sup port by posing as the defender of Mexico's rights against North Amer ican aggression.