Evening star., 1934-03-25
PANAMA ASKS s'NEW DEAL"
FROM u. S. GOVERNMENT
Panamanian Society Feels Time Has
Come to Correct Evils
of 1908 Treaty.


tain and administer the canal.
Panamanians Restricted.
In the course of the 80 years
which have elapsed since the signing
of the Hay-Bunau Varilla treaty,
however. the expectations Of the
Panamanian people have not been
fulfilled. On the one hand, the priv
| ileges granted the United States have
been capriciouSly interpreted by the
American authorities of the Canal
Zone, with the result that they have
seriously interfered with the attri-
butes of sovereignty of the Pana-
manian government and with the In
dividual rights and businesses of the
citizens of Panama. On the other
hand, the profits derived from the
commercial activities created by the
canal have gone, not to the Pana-
manian people, but to American in
| terests. to the American commits
saries" of the Canal Zone and to
American enterprises which are ad-
vantageously competing with the
| local ones.
At first some Of these abuses were
/ temporarily checked by the so-called
/ Taft agreements, concluded by the
then Secretary of War of the United
States to overcome the protests Of the
/ Panamanian government, but soon
| the spirit of these agreements was
disregarded and gradually set aside
until the United States formally. and
/ by unilateral action, abrogated them.
1t is impossible to describe within
the limitations of this column all the
problems arising out of the misinter-
probation and abuse of the provisions
| OF the 1903 treaty, in detriment Of
Panamanlan sovereignty and Of Pana-
manlan national economy. The Pana-
manian Minister to Washington listed
81 OF them in a memorandum to the
State Department several years ago.
The mere enumeration of some of the
| outstanding ones should suffice to
stress the need for modification Of
the unfair conditions prevailing.
Threat Hangs Over People.
According to the 1903 treaty.
Panamanian citizens seem Obliged in
definitely to give up the land which
may be necessary for the construc-
ton and operation of the canal. Al
though the canal was completed long
ago and has been in actual operation
since 1913, no one in Panama knows
with any degree of certainty, as the
message delivered by DR.. Lewis at the
| White House states. whether some
day this land will become the prop
erty Of the United States Govern
ment. A general threat hangs
over the population" because of the
| apparently perpetual right of ex-
preparation given the United States
by the Hay-Bunau VariIa pact.
Another charge set forth by the
Panamanian Society for International
Action is that the benefits Of transit,
which for times immemorial had con-
stituted the God-given privilege of
Panama and the main source of its
economy. have been taken away from
her. "All transient commerce" it de-
clares, is being accumulated in the
hands of the Government of the
United States, as managers Of COM
merclaI enterprises which conduct a
merciless competition against Pana-
manlan commerce and is gradually
reducing it to misery and starvation"
1t is recalled that in the days Of
the French Canal Co., the cities of
Panama and Colon were the natural
deposits for merchandise which later
was dispatched from the Isthmus to
Central and South America. while
now all merchandise transits the
Canal in transient vessels without leav-
ing other benefit than the tolls which
go entirely to the Government of the
United States. Any merchandise un-
loaded at either of the terminal ports
for re-embarkation at the other only
renders a benefit to the Panama Rail-
road Co., an American enterprise,
which monopolizes all the profits of
transit through the Canal Zone to the
entire exclusion Of the Republic of
Panama"
Unfair Competition Cited.
To these losses, the message adds,
the absorbent action" of the COM
mlSSaries Of the Canal Zone, of the
Post Exchanges, restaurants, hotels.
club houses, movie houses, etc, where
the Government of the United States
carries on multiple commercial activ-
tiles without paying import duties on
merchandise of any class, without i'm
posing on itself the burden of reut5
Tor buildings or lands, without incur
ring the expense of the ordinary
freight costs, as its merchandise is
transported almost gratuitously" by
the ships and trains of the Panama
Railroad Co.. a commercial entity
owned outright by the Government Of
the United States.
This unfair competition to local
! nllSlneSS FpSIIlfin0 iy1
OF Panamanian private enterprises
and the decrease of public revenues,
apparently justifies the conclusion of
the Panamanian Society for Inter-
national Action that "an effort has
been made in the direction of making
the Canal Zone a community destruc-
tive of the prosperity of the Republic
of Panama"
This. If we are to believe in the
sincerity Of the American statesmen
who negotiated it, was not the inten-
ton OF the 1908 treaty, and that Is
sufhclent ground to call for its revi-
sion. But the new deal" and the
good neighborliness" promised by the
present Chief Executive of the United
States make such revision more i'm
perative. A new pact should be con-
cluded combining the activities Of the
United States in the Canal Zone to
those necessary to the maintenance,
administration and protection Of the
Canal. It's provisions should comply
with the requisites demanded in 1924
BY Panamanian Minister Ricardo J.
Alfaro: mot to hinder the prosperity
OF Panama. not to decrease its public
revenue. not to impair its interna-
tional prestige"
(Copyrisht 1934)