Evening star., 1949-03-13

nation itself. They make it almt
leaders to develop and build up
the economy of the little country
or to improve the lot of its con-
glomerate population of 650,000
people.
The rank and file Of the small
army of Isthmian politicians
spend most of their time agitat-
ing against Uncle Sam and the
way his representatives govern
the 10000 employees who operate
the most strategic and vital water
way in the Western World. They
proceed upon the strategy that
Panama can benefit itself only by
Wringing more and more economic
and political concessions from the
Yankees. The few Well-meaning
citizens who occupy themselves
with trying to solve at least some
of their own grievous internal
problems without reference to
economic or political advantages
that accrue from the Canal Zone
get little thanks for their efforts.
They are more likely to find them
selves branded as Yankee COLA
borationists who have sold out to
or have become the victims of
United States imperialists.
Professors the Brains
The chief sparkplug of such
propaganda and abuses is the
Partido del Pueblo, a small but
militant Communist-front politi-
cal party. The brains behind this
organization are represented by a
group of pro-Red Spanish profess
sors, who escaped from Frances
dictatorship after the overthrow
of the Spanish Republican gov
ernment and are now teaching at
the nationalistic University Of
Panama. This group keeps stu
dents in volatile mood, ready to
demonstrate on any occasion and
for or against any event or cause
which will embarrass their own
government and especially its re-
lations with the United States
and Canal Zone officials. Worse
still they have instilled into the
majority of the younger people
an exaggerated antiforeign atti-
tude that has resulted in terrific
inferiority complex.
The angry demonstration in and
around the National Assembly in
December, 1947, which caused
Panamanian legislators to refuse
to ratify a treaty which would
have permitted our military forces
to continue to occupy and operate
certain wartime defense bases in
Panamanian territory, was organ
lied and directed by the Partido
del Pueblo and the university pro-
feSsorS.
While extreme nationalism and,
from the point of view of the av-
erage local politician, the limited
economic advantages of the coun-
try. play into the hands of the ex-
treme Leftists, the Panamanian
population itself is made to order
for the purpose of the Communists
and other extremists.
Majority Poor, Ill-Fed
Walk along Front street in Co.
lon on the Atlantic or Caribbean
side and you find the stores and
shops run by Hindus, Turks. As
syrians, Chinese and. before the
war, Japanese. Go to the swarm
ing Central Market Place few
blocks away and the majority of
the customers are descendants of
the Jamaican Negroes who helped
to dig the Canal but remained be-
hind to make their homes in Pan
anna, along with others from al
most every Caribbean island and
coastal town.
On Avenida Central in Panama
City you not only find more
Chinese, Hindus and East Indians
but Greeks, Italians, Slavs and
others running the trinket shops
the drygoods stores and saloons
There is but a handful of people
representing the old families who
survived from Spanish colonial
days.
These old families are the law
yers, the doctors and the bankers,
as we'll as the top politicians or
ruling class. Go north toward the
Costa Rican border into the cat
tle-raising and small agricultural
communities, and most of the
farm and ranch workers and vii
layers are descendants of the an
cient redman or mixture OF all
races. In the islands south Of
Colon and the Caribbean side are
tribes of primitive Indians.
Police Backed Election
The vast majority of all of these
people aside from the small upper
and ruling class are poor, i'll fed,
i'll housed, often diseased, and Ger
tainly unhappy people. Two
thirds of all of the entire popu-
lation are damned into the capi-
tai of Panama City on the Pacific
and Colon on the Caribbean. Such
a population is an invitation to
the Red propagandists and lush
pickings for the political bosses.
The position of the present ad-
of 74-year-old Presi-
dent Domingo Diaz Arosemena,
which came to Office last October,
after the most bitterly contested
election in Panamanian history,
is in extremely difficult. straits.
It's support in the General Assem-
bly,, a single house legislative body,
is more than precarious. In fact,
the Government Party, or pro-
government groups, could muster
a majority of only three, even if
all the elements were able to get
together.
Diaz' chief opponent was fire
eating former President Arnulfo
Arias, who had been deposed by
his own henchmen in l941. Arias
was charged with being friendly
toward If not actually in collabo-