Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-09-08
PANAMA EAGERLY AWAITS
TERMS OF NEW u. S. PACT
Popular Interest in Treaty Being Nego.
tiated Here Reveals Resentments
Over Past Treatment.

Secretary of State John Hay, In the
private residence OF the latter.
scarcely two hours before the duly
accredited Panamanian plenipoten-
tiaries arrived in Washington, testify
to the one-sidedness Of the deal.
This one-Sidedness, and this un.
usual manner in which the Hay.
Bunau Varilla treaty came into being,
were bad enough, but the way in
which the treaty was applied and
exploited in later years was even
worse. inexperienced and almost
friendless at the beginning of their
independent life, the Panamanians
had accepted the sacrifices involved
in the 1903 treaty, as stated in a
previous article, in the belief that
they would be compensated in the
future by the material benefits and
the commercial prosperity to be de-
rived from the interoceanic canal.
Soon it turned out, however, that
such benefits and such prosperity
were being diverted, by means of q
capricious stretching of the 1908
treaty, to the United States authori-
ties and residents of the Canal Zone.
After three decades Of misinter-
probation of the Hay-Bunau VarilIa
pact, the United States was enjoying
privileges, not only for the "mainte-
nance, operation, sanitation and pro-
lection" of the Panama Canal, as
had been originally intended, but
for the carrying on of a merciless
competition against local business and
local commerce, which were being
deprived of the profits they had been
promised in exchange for the surren-
der Of Panamanian sovereignty over
the Canal Zone. Last week we de-
scribed some of the outstanding abuses
which were committed under the veil
of the original Canal treaty and
which definitely turned the Pana-
manians against it,
Repeatedly Disappointed.
It was these abuses and the re-
peated disappointments they suffered
at the hands of the Taft. the Wilson
and the Harding administrations that
made the Panamanians skeptical
about the friendship Of the United
States Government toward them. It
was hard to convince them this Sum-
mer that a change had taken place
in the Latin American policies of the
State Department, that the old impe-
realistic attitude had been supplanted
by a more liberal and more humane
tendency of gradual correction Of yes
terday'S evils and mistakes. They
somehow could not understand why
the United States had suddenly given
up the role of the big brother" and
decided to become the good neigh
Dor" of Panama. ! will never forget
the reaction Of one Of the more radi-
cal leaders of the "Accion Communal
party, when was outlining to group
Of them what I thought would be the
main concessions given Panama in
the new treaty, which was then being
concluded at Washington. What will
the United States get in exchange?"
he asked impatiently. What are
they after now?"
Perhaps it is good thing that the
Panamanians be in that frame Of
mind when they learn the terms of
the new treaty. For then it will be
easier for them, by mere comparison
with the present conditions and the
old abuses, to recognize the improve
ment, and to admit the disinterested-
ness and the good neighborlinesS
which inspired the new compact. 1t
will be easier for them to realize that
the new treaty complies with the
requisites once demanded by the
stanchest defender of Panama's rights
in Washington, DR.. Ricardo J. Alfaro:
Not to hinder the prosperity Of Pan
anna, not to decrease its public reve-
nue.. not to impair its international
prestige"
(CopyrtRht 1Q3b1