the property of the United States as the result of the construction or maintenance thereof. The cost of pumping such petroleum products. from Balboa to the Canal Zone-City of Panama boundary would be borne by the Republic of Panama which would install and maintain the necessary pumping facilities for the purpose.

I should appreciate it if Your Excellency would confirm my understanding of the agreement reached as set forth above.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration.

Con suma y honrosa complacencia acuso a Vuestra Excelencia recibo de su Nota fechada hoy, 18 de Mayo de 1942, en relación con el Memorandum que el entonces Embajador de Panamá ante el ilustre Gobierno de Vuestra Excelencia depositó en manos del Excelentísimo Señor Presidente de los Estados Unidos el 18 de Febrero de 1941 y con la memoranda del Departamento de Estado del 8 de Julio, 18 de Julio 2 de Diciembre de 1941, que se refieren a los doce puntos cubriendo ciertas aspiraciones panameñas respecto a las cuales acción positiva fué solicitada al Gobierno de los Estados Unidos.

Me honra en sumo grado llevar al conocimiento de Vuestra Excelencia que después de subsecuentes negociaciones se ha llegado felizmente a un mutuo acuerdo entre nuestros dos Gobiernos, respecto a los doc puntos, tal como han quedado establecidos en la Nota de Vuestra Excelencia que viene a constituírse en importantísimo documento para nosotros y para las generaciones futuras, pues puntualiza la acepta ción por parte del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos de las equitativas y justas aspiraciones del Gobierno de mi patria y al mismo tiempo demuestra palpablemente que el Gobierno de Panamá está dispuesto en todo momento a prestar una completa y amplia cooperación con el Gobierno de los Estados Unidos eu la defensa de la ruta interoceánica que ha dividido en dos el Istmo panameño,

Este documento constituye un elocuente y noble ejemplo al mundo de que nuestros dos Gobiernos marchan por el sendero de la vida democrática en estrecha e íntima hermandad satisfaciendo así los

deseos de una verdadera unión Panamericana expresada por la colosal figura de Simón Bolívar hace más de cien años y reiterada, en esta época, tan elocuente y brillantemente por la eminente personalidad de Franklin Delano Roosevelt por medio de su doctrina del Buen Vecino.

Acepte, Vuestra Excelencia, una vez más, los sinceros testimonios de mi más alta consideración y estima,

With the greatest and most honored pleasure I acknowledge receipt of Your Excellency's note dated today, May 18, 1942, with reference to the memorandum which the then Ambassador of Panama near Your Excellency's enlightened Government left with His Excellency the President of the United States on February 18, 1941 and to the memorandums of the Department of State dated July 8, July 18 and December 2, 1941, which concern the twelve points covering certain Panamanian aspirations regarding which positive action was requested of the Government of the United States.

It gives me the greatest honor to inform Your Excellency that after subsequent negotiations a mutual agreement has happily been reached between our two Governments respecting the twelve points as they were set forth in Your Excellency's note which becomes a most important document for us and for future generations since it bodies the acceptance by the Government of the United States of the equitable and just aspirations of the Government of my country and, at the same time, makes it obvious that the Government of Panama is prepared at any time to give complete and full cooperation to the Government of the United States in the defense of the interan route which has divided the Panamanian isthmus in two. This document constitutes an eloquent and noble example to the world that our Governments walk by the path of the democratic life in close and intimate brotherhood, thus satisfying the desires of a real Pan American union expressed by the colossal figure of Simón

Bolívar more than one hundred years ago and so eloquently and brilliantly renewed in this era by the eminent personality of Franklin Delano Roosevelt through his Good Neighbor policy.

Accept, Excellency, once more, the sincere testimonies of my highest consideration and esteem.

E. JAÉN GUARDIA

Ambassador

His Excellency CORDELL HULL,

Secretary of State of the United States,

Washington, D. C.

#111. The Report of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on H.J. Res. 14 Authorizing the Conveyance to Panama of the Water and Sewerage Systems in Panama City and Colon, the Relinquishment of Real-Estate Holdings in Colon and Panama City, and the Liquidation of a $2.5 Million Panamanian Debt, April 22, 1943*

Calendar No. 204

78TH CONGRESS 1st Session

}

SENATE

REPORT No. 201

AUTHORIZING THE EXECUTION OF CERTAIN OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE TREATIES OF 1903 AND 1936 WITH PANAMA

1

APRIL 22, 1943.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. CONNALLY, from the Committee on Foreign Relations, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. J. Res. 14]

The Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom was referred the joint resolution (H. J. Res. 14) authorizing the execution of certain obligations under the treaties of 1903 and 1936 with Panama, and other commitments, having considered the same report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the joint resolution do pass.

The proposed legislation is identical with Senate Joint Resolution 162, as amended and favorably reported by your committee on November 25, 1942 (see S. Rept. 1720, 77th Cong., 2d sess.), and as further amended and approved by the Senate on December 4, 1942.

On September 30, 1942, the House Foreign Affairs Committee favorably reported House Joint Resolution 342, the companion measure to Senate Joint Resolution 162, but due to the lack of a quorum during the last few weeks of the Seventy-seventh Congress consideration could not be given the proposed legislation on the floor of the

*Senate Report No. 201, 78th Congress, 1st Session. For minority views, see Report No. 201, Part 2.

louse. Upon the opening of the new Congress on January 6, 1943, is joint resolution as amended in the Senate was reintroduced in ae House as House Joint Resolution 14, was considered and by nanimous vote favorably reported by the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 22, 1943. (See H. Rept. 271, 78th Cong., st sess., and hearings before the Committee on Foreign Affairs on I. J. Res. 14). House Joint Resolution 14 was passed by the House n April 13.

For the information of the Senate, there is again included in your ommittee's report the message to the Congress from the President of he United States, dated August 13, 1942, with which was transmitted the request for the authorization of the execution of the action as contemplated in the three sections of the joint resolution now before you. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING A REQUEST FOR THE AUTHORIZATION OF THE EXECUTION OF CERTAIN OBLIGATIONS UNDER THE TREATIES OF 1903 AND 1936 WITH PAnama, and OthER COMMITMENTS

To the Congress of the United States:

The Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Panama, effective on July 27, 1939, was a definitive step in the clarification of this Government's relations with the Republic of Panama. The Panamanian Government has demonstrated its willingness to assume promptly and wholeheartedly the burdens imposed upon it as partner in the defense of the Panama Canal, a responsibility which was accepted by that Government under the provisions of the new treaty.

The attitude of the Panamanian Government in the present international crisis has been thoroughly cooperative. On March 5, 1941, the President of the Republic of Panama issued. a manifesto making available for use by the United States certain defense sites in the territory of that Republic. Pending the conclusions of final arrangements regarding the terms on which these sites are to be used, the Panamanian Government has permitted our armed forces to occupy and develop them. Immediately following the attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor, Panama declared war on the three major Axis Powers, and since has taken numerous protective steps to cooperate with the other American republics in the interest and security of the Panama Canal and the defense of this hemisphere. This attitude is tangible evidence that the relations between the two countries are now firmly based upon a recognition of mutual interest and a disposition to Assume common responsibilities.

In my opinion, the time has come for this Government to make certain concessions, which have been desired by the Republic of Panama over a period of years, and in this manner to correct certain factors in the relations between the two countries which do not make for confidence and friendship between our two countries.

Accordingly, I deem it advisable that this Government convey to Panama the water and sewerage systems in the cities of Panama and Colon; that it relinquish its extensive real-estate holdings in the cities of Colon and Panama, so far as these holdings are not essential to the operation and protection of the Canal; and that it liquidate the credit of two and a half million dollars made available to the Republic of Panama by the Export-Import Bank for the construction of Panama's share of the Chorrera-Rio Hato Highway, a road essential to our defense requirements and constructed in accordance with standards made essential by these requirements.

It will be recalled that the interest of the United States in the sanitation of the Canal Zone, together with that of the cities of Panama and Colon, has been of outstanding importance. Concurrent with the construction of the Panama Canal, through agreement with Panama, the United States installed water and sewerage systems in the cities of Panama and Colon, and throughout subsequent years has been responsible for the operation and maintenance of these systems and for the sanitation of the two cities.

I now propose to the Congress, that, since in accordance with article VII of the Canal Convention of 1903, the "system of sewers and waterworks shall revert to and become the properties of the cities of Panama and Colon," in the year 1957,

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