this Government has only the friendliest intentions toward Colombia, and will not lightly be provoked into assuming a hostile attitude toward that Republic. I have, etc., Gen. RAFAEL Reyes, Etc. JOHN HAY. The Minister of Panama to the Secretary of State. THE LEGATION of the Republic of Panama, DEAR SIR: The treaty of the 18th of November, 1903, provides for the payment to the Republic of Panama of the sum of $10,000,000 after the exchange of ratifications. The Government of the Republic of Panama has always been anxious to insure a proper and useful employment of said sum. The delegates of the government, Doctor Amador and Señor Don Frederico Boyd have repeatedly told me that the principle which the government intended to carry out for the employment of said sum was, not to invest any part of the capital in anything but consistent works which would permanently represent the counter value of the expenses incurred. According to this principle the Government expressed the desire to take only $2,000,000 out of the $10,000,000 from the United States Treasury after exchange of ratifications, leaving the remaining $8,000,000 in the United States Treasury to be later on employed according to the necessities of the future and to the principle which I explained above. At the same time the Government desired that this sum should be productive of interest in order to help to obtain the equilibrium of the budget. According to the recommendations that were made to me by the Government of the Republic, I was requested to ask the Government of the United States if it would accept to pay an interest of 3 per cent on the sum remaining in its hands out of the total sum of $10,000,000 provided for in the treaty of the 18th of November. The interest to be paid on the $8,000,000 that the Government intends now to leave in the American Treasury would be $240,000. The expression of this desire of my Government came by mail after the signature of the treaty, and I did not feel justified at that moment to call your attention to this point on account of the more important matters which required your attention, but now that the situation has progressed and that the Treasury Department may be considering the measures to be taken in the event of a prompt rati fication of the treaty, I feel justified in submitting the case to your excellency so that if the United States Government thinks the intentions of the Republic of Panama in harmony with its own, a special convention may be drafted to settle this particular point. I am, sir, with great respect, your very obedient servant, His Excellency JOHN HAY, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. The Minister of Panama to the Secretary of State. LEGATION OF THE REPUBLIC OF PANAMA AT WASHINGTON, Washington, D. C., December 31, 1903. DEAR SIR: I have the honor of bringing to your knowledge that by a telegram received during the night of the 21st of December, I have been authorized by my Government to declare that the Republic of Panama, as soon as its independence shall be recognized by the Republic of Colombia, intends to assume a part of Colombia's exterior debt of which the principal was settled at £2,000,000 by special convention, and which is now accrued by the unpaid interest. The Republic of Panama has determined that the proportion of that debt it is ready to assume will be equal to the proportion between its population and the population of Colombia, a proportion which is not very far from 1 to 15. I beg, sir, to call your attention to the fact that the Government of the Republic of Panama, in making such declaration, is actuated by the desire of showing its good faith and its liberality toward the citizens of foreign countries who may think they have a just claim against it rather than by the sentiment that by right they owe any part of the Colombian debt. The distribution, according to the number of inhabitants of the two Republics, would be just only if it could be established, which is generally the case, that the money has been employed for the common. utility of all the parts of the Republic and that Panama has enjoyed its share of it. On the contrary, this distribution is not just and ought not to be made in strict right if, 'as is the case, no part of the loans were ever employed for the benefit of the State of Panama, now the Republic of Panama. Since its union to greater Colombia, for the liberation of which said loans were made, the State of Panama has never received any money from the mother country, but, on the contrary, it has sent to it very important sums, and one can say, as a rule, that the funds never went from Bogota to Panama, but always from Panama to Bogota. It will be easy to establish that the Department of Panama is the creditor of Colombia and not its debtor and that, therefore, it does not owe to Colombia anything either for its external debt or from any other cause. This would have been a substantial and legal ground for nonassumption of any part of the Colombian debt, but, as I had the honor of stating to you, the Government of the Republic has felt itself bound to justify, not by arguments, but by facts, the testimony of confidence, esteem, and good will which have come from all the governments of the greatest nations of earth since the recent date of its birth. I am, sir, with great respect, your very obedient servant, P. BUNAU Varilla. His Excellency JOHN HAY, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. WHITE HOUSE, January 7, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report from the Acting Secretary of State covering a statement showing the receipts and disbursements of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company for the month of November, 1903, together with a summary of the receipts and disbursements of the company from its incorporation to November 30, 1903, furnished by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Commission in pursuance of section II of the "Act to provide for celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of the purchase of the Louisiana territory," etc., approved March 3, 1901. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. WHITE HOUSE, January 11, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report by the Secretary of Agriculture of the operations of the Bureau of Animal Industry of that Department for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1903, in compliance with the requirements of section II of the act approved May 29, 1884, for the establishment of that Bureau. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. WHITE HOUSE, January 12, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit a report by the Acting Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, in regard to the application of the British Embassy in behalf of Messrs. Gordon, Ironsides & Fares Company (Limited), of Canada, for reimbursement of $7,626.08, which they allege the United States customs authorities improperly exacted of them in November, 1902, as duties on certain sheep and cattle. In view of the facts as recited by the Acting Secretary of State and shown in the correspondence, I recommend that provision be made for the company's reimbursement. To the Senate: THEODORE ROOSEVELT. WHITE HOUSE, January 12, 1904. In response to the resolution of the Senate of December 19, 1903, requesting the President, "if not incompatible with the public interests, to transmit to the Senate a list of any claims now pending in the Department of State by British subjects against the United States, or of citizens of the United States against Great Britain," I transmit herewith a report from the Acting Secretary of State covering the list called for. THEODORE ROOSEVELT WHITE HOUSE, January 12, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report from the Acting Secretary of State, with inclosure from the ambassador of the French Republic, relative to the desire of certain French citizens to present to this Government a reproduction of the bust of Washington by David d'Angers, which the donors wish to be placed in the Capitol. I recommend that Congress accept this gift by joint resolution and that suitable provisions be made for its ceremonial installation. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. JOINT RESOLUTION OF BOTH HOUSES. Whereas Count de Rochambeau, Marquis de Lafayette, Marquis de Grasse, Mr. Henry Jouin, and other citizens of France have tendered to the Government of the United States a reproduction of the bust of Washington by David d'Angers, which was destroyed in the fire at the Capitol in 1851, to be placed in the Capitol of the United States: Therefore, Resolved, etc., That said gift is hereby accepted in the name of the people of the United States, and the thanks of Congress are tendered to the donors therefor. SEC. 2. That the Joint Committee on the Library are hereby instructed to make arrangements for the formal presentation of said gift to Congress on a day to be hereafter fixed by said committee, and that said committee shall cause said bust to be placed in an appropriate and conspicuous place in the Capitol building. SEC. 3. That the Secretary of State be directed to transmit a copy of this joint resolution to the donors, through the Government of the French Republic. WHITE HOUSE, January 15, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a petition to the President of the United States to aid in preserving the Calaveras groves of big trees, submitted by the Calaveras Big Tree Committee and the citizens of California and elsewhere. I cordially recommend it to the favorable consideration of the Congress. The Calaveras Big Tree Grove is not only a Californian, but a national inheritance, and all that can be done by the Government to insure its preservation should be done. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. WHITE HOUSE, January 18, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith for the information of the Congress a report from the Secretary of State covering copies of additional papers bearing upon the relations of the United States with Colombia and the Republic of Panama. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. WHITE HOUSE, January 20, 1904. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers, relating to the claim of Messrs. Sivewright, Bacon & Co., of Manchester, England, British subjects, for compensation for damages sustained by their vessel, the British steamship Eastry, in consequence of collisions, in June, 1901, at Manila, with certain coal hulks belonging to the United States Government. I recommend that, as an act of equity and comity, provision be made by the Congress for reimbursement to the firm of the money expended by it in making the repairs to the ship which the collisions rendered. necessary. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. |