cerned. Such allowance shall be granted by the cabinet council, under the joint responsibility of the whole cabinet, and an instrument shall be drawn up by which the allowance granted is to be fully justified.

The legalization of such allowances appertains to the National Assembly.

ARTICLE 121.

No indirect tax or increase of such taxes shall be collected until three months after the date of the promulgation of the law establishing such a tax or increase.

TITLE XIII.

PUBLIC FORCES.

ARTICLE 122.

All citizens of Panama are bound to take up arms whenever demanded by public necessity for the defence of national independence and the institutions of the country.

The law will determine the conditions for exemption from military service.

ARTICLE 123.

The law shall organize the military service and the national police.

ARTICLE 124.

The nation may maintain a permanent army for its defence.
Recruiting is and shall be prohibited.

ARTICLE 125.

The public forces are not a deliberative organization. They may assemble only by order of the proper authority, and may make petitions only on subjects relating to the good service and the morality of the army, and in accordance with the laws of their establishment.

ARTICLE 126.

Crimes committed by military persons on active duty, or in connection with such duty, shall be taken cognizance of by courts-martial, or military courts, in accordance with the provisions of the military code.

ARTICLE 127.

The National Government alone may import and manufacture arms and munitions of war.

TITLE XIV.

PROVINCES.

ARTICLE 128.

There shall be in each province a governor, whose appointment and removal shall be at the pleasure of the President of the Republic, and whose powers and duties shall be defined by law.

ARTICLE 129.

There shall be in each municipal district a corporation that shall be styled municipal council and consist of the number of members determined by law and elected directly by popular vote.

ARTICLE 130.

Municipal districts are autonomous as to their internal affairs, but they cannot contract debts without the authorization of the National Assembly.

FB 1904 M- -37

ARTICLE 131.

It shall be within the province of municipal councils to take, by means of their own resolutions or of regulations issued by technical boards or commissions, such dispositions as may be expedient for the government of the district; to vote local taxes and expenditures within the bounds established by the fiscal system of the nation, and to exercise such other functions as may be ascribed to them by law.

ARTICLE 132.

There shall be in each municipal district a mayor (alcalde) named in the manner to be provided for by law, who shall exert administrative powers in the capacity of agent of the governor and mandatory of the people.

TITLE XV.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 133.

Primary instruction shall be compulsory, and, when public, shall be free. There shall also be schools of arts and trades and institutions of secondary and professional instruction under Government control.

The law may decentralize public instruction and shall assign to it special

revenues.

ARTICLE 134.

There shall be in Panama no office whose powers and duties shall not be particularized by law or regulations, and no public officer shall receive two or more salaries from the public treasury except under the provisions that may be made by law in special cases.

ARTICLE 135.

Ministers of the various religious denominations shall not hold any office, employment, or public trust in the Republic, whether personal, civil, or military, excepting such positions as are connected with charity or public instruction.

ARTICLE 136.

The Government of the United States of America may intervene in any part of the Republic of Panama to restablish public peace and constitutional order in the event of their being disturbed, provided that that nation shall, by public treaty. assume or have assumed the obligation of guaranteeing the independence and sovereignty of this Republic.

TITLE XVI.

REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION.

ARTICLE 137.

This constitution may be amended through a legislative act drawn up in the usual form. submitted by the Government to the following regular National Assembly for its final consideration, discussed anew by the latter and approved by two-thirds of the members constituting the Assembly.

TITLE XVII.

TRANSITORY PROVISIONS.

ARTICLE 138.

In order to secure for posterity a part of the pecuniary advantages derived from the negotiations for the construction of the interoceanic canal, the sum

of six million dollars is hereby set aside for investment in securities bearing a fixed annual interest. The said investment shall be regulated by law.

ARTICLE 139.

The law may impose the death penalty only for the crime of murder when it is of an atrocious character. This, while there are no good penal establishments or real penitentiaries in the Republic.

ARTICLE 140.

The first President of the Republic shall be elected by the National Convention by a majority of the votes on the day of the promulgation of this constitution. He shall enter upon his office at once and discharge its duties until the 30th of September, 1908.

The "

designados" shall be elected on the same day as the President and their term shall expire on the 30th of September, 1906.

ARTICLE 141.

Any citizen may be elected first constitutional President of the Republic of Panama who, although not a Panaman by birth, shall have taken an active part in securing the independence of the Republic.

ARTICLE 142.

As soon as this constitution shall have been sanctioned by the board of provisional government of the Republic, the convention shall lose its character as such and shall assume all the functions assigned to the National Assembly, the prohibition contained in article 64 not applying to the delegates to the convention.

ARTICLE 143.

Before the date on which the first National Assembly is to meet, the constituent national convention shall again exercise the legislative functions whenever it may be called in extraordinary session by the Executive.

ARTICLE 144.

The first National Assembly shall meet on the 1st of September, 1906.

ARTICLE 145.

All of the acts executed by the Board of Provisional Government from the third (3rd) of November, 1903, to the fifteenth (15) of January of the present year, are hereby expressly ratified.

ARTICLE 146.

Existing monopolies and other privileges shall continue until the expiration of their respective legal contracts, unless it is possible to reach equitable agreements with the concessionaries for their immediate termination.

ARTICLE 147.

All laws, decrees, regulations, orders, or other dispositions which may be in force at the time this constitution is promulgated shall continue to be observed unless they are contrary to it or to the laws of the Republic of Panama.

ARTICLE 148.

This constitution shall take effect, as far as the supreme branches (powers) of the Government are concerned, from the day on which it is sanctioned; and as far as the Republic is concerned, fifteen days after its publication in the Official Gazette.

Given in the city of Panama, on the thirteenth day of February, nineteen hundred and four.

BOARD OF PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE REPUBLIC,

Panama, February 15, 1904.

J. A. ARANGO, FEDERICO BOYD, TOMAS ABIAS.

No. 57.]

Mr. Russell to Mr. Hay.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Panama, February 22, 1904. SIR: I have the honor to report that on Saturday, the 19th instant, the inauguration of Dr. Manuel Amador Guerrero as first President of the Republic of Panama took place with much pomp and ceremony. Admiral Glass, of the Pacific Squadron, sent a representative with 20 officers, all in uniform. Admiral Coghlan and staff, of the Atlantic Squadron, came up from Colon; and Colonel Biddle, with staff and 20 officers, represented the regiment of marines stationed in the center of the Isthmus. After the inauguration the President issued a circular, a translation of the portion of which referring to the United States I inclose.

The cabinet was named the same day, and is as follows: Government (which includes foreign affairs), Mr. Tomas Arias; treasury, Dr. F. V. de la Espriella; justice and public instruction, Julio Fábrega; public works, Manuel Quintero V.

Mr. Arias was a member of the junta of the provincial government and is a member of the Conservative party. Doctor Espriella was a minister for foregin affairs under the provisional government and is a Liberal. Mr. Julio Fábrega was minister of public instruction under the provisional government and is a Conservative. Mr. Manuel Quintero is a Liberal and was a revolutionist general in the last revolution.

I am, sir, with great respect, your obedient servant,

WILLIAM W. RUSSELL.

[Manifesto.-Extract.-Translation.]

I believe I echo the true sentiment of Isthmians when I take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the Government of the United States of America for its noble and generous attitude in listening to the just representations made to it after the proclamation of our independence, through our representative there, looking to our recognition as a free country worthy to figure in the list and with the same prerogatives as our other sister Republics of South and Central America.

TRANSFER OF THE CANAL ZONE TO THE UNITED STATES. Mr. Russell to Mr. Hay.

No. 86.1

AMERICAN LEGATION,
Panama, May 24, 1904.

SIR: I have the honor to report that General George W. Davis, governor of the Isthmian Canal Zone, arrived at Colon on Tuesday, May 17. He requested me, by telegraph, to meet him and to arrange an interview with President Amador on the morning of Thursday, May 19.

General Davis was accompanied by Admiral Sigsbee, commanding the Caribbean Squadron and staff, and Major Lejeune, commanding the battalion of United States marines on the Isthmus, myself, and Mr. Lee, the secretary of this legation. President Amador received