PANAMA

[§ 20 to preserving and maintaining a government adequate for the purposes described therein.1 The references in the compact to "independence" must be taken generally to refer to Cuban freedom from external control as exerted by States other than the United States, and by the United States beyond the extent which the convention permits.2

§ 20. Panama.

(b)

By the treaty of November 18, 1903, between the United States and Panama, the former undertook to guarantee and maintain the "independence of the Republic of Panama." 3 The latter not only granted to the United States in perpetuity the use, occupation and control of a specified zone of land and land under water for the construction, maintenance, operation, sanitation and protection of an inter-oceanic ship canal, and of ten miles in width (together with certain lands and islands outside of the zone), as well as rights akin to those of sovereignty over the zone and auxiliary lands and waters, but also agreed that

If it should become necessary at any time to employ armed forces for the safety or protection of the Canal, or of the ships that make use of the same, or the railways, and auxiliary works, the United States shall have the right, at all times and in its discretion, to use its police and its land and naval forces or to establish fortifications for these purposes.5

1 The United States intervened in Cuba in 1906, establishing a military occupation which continued until 1909.

See For. Rel. 1906, I, 454-494, especially President Roosevelt to Señor Quesada, Cuban Minister, Sept. 14, 1906, id., 480. See, also, Mr. Knox, Secy. of State, to Mr. Jackson, Minister to Cuba, June 21, 1910, For. Rel 1910, 416; Mr. Knox, Secy. of State, to the American Chargé d'Affaires, Aug. 15, 1912, For. Rel. 1912, 314.

2 The description of States placed under the protection of others as "independent" in the very documents which purport to establish a status of dependency is not uncommon. The reference to the Ionian Islands as a "single, free and Independent State", in the treaty of Nov. 5, 1815, is illustrative. Brit. and For. State Pap., III, 250, 254.

3 Art. I, Malloy's Treaties, II, 1349.

4 Arts. II and III. By Art. V Panama granted to the United States in perpetuity a monopoly for the construction, maintenance and operation of any system of communication by means of canal or railroad across its territory between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

5 Art. XXIII. It was provided in Art. XXIV that if the Republic of Panama should thereafter enter as a constituent into any other government or into any union or confederation of States, so as to merge her sovereignty or independence in such Government, union or confederation, the rights of the United States under the convention should not be in any respect lessened or impaired.

The Republic granted also to the United States both within the limits of the cities of Panama and Colon and within the harbors and territory adjacent thereto, the broad right to acquire properties of various kinds necessary and convenient for the construction, maintenance, operation and protection of the Canal, embracing works of sanitation. It was agreed that those cities should comply in perpetuity with the sanitary ordinances prescribed by the United States, and it was declared that

in case the Government of Panama is unable or fails in its duty to enforce this compliance by the cities of Panama and Colon with the sanitary ordinances of the United States, the Republic of Panama grants to the United States the right and authority to enforce the same.

The same right and authority are granted to the United States for the maintenance of public order in the cities of Panama and Colon and the territories and harbors adjacent thereto in case the Republic of Panama should not be, in the judgment of the United States, able to maintain such order.1

Although the foregoing provisions may not have been designed to impose a status of dependency upon the Republic of Panama, the nature and scope of the rights conferred as incidental to the maintenance and protection of the Canal, and outside of as well as within the zone, served to subject that country to a marked degree of external control. By granting to a foreign State the right to conduct for all time an enterprise of the kind and magnitude of the Canal, and bearing the geographical relationship which it did to the territory of the grantor, Panama undertook, and doubtless wisely, to subordinate its interests, whether domestic or foreign, to those of the grantee in relation to the Canal, in case of any conflict between them.2 By so doing it relinquished, with respect to such matters, its independence. Otherwise that Republic retained its freedom of action.3

1 Art. VII.

By Art. XXV the Government of Panama agreed to sell or lease to the United States lands adequate and necessary for naval or coaling stations on the Pacific coast and on the western Caribbean coast of the Republic at certain points to be agreed upon by the President of the United States.

For the rights, powers and privileges granted to it, the United States agreed to pay to the Republic of Panama the sum of $10,000,000, and an annual payment during the life of the convention of $250,000. Art. XIV.

2 See Mr. Root, Secy. of State, to Mr. Taft, Secy. of War, Feb. 21, 1906, concerning the right of the United States under the treaty with Panama to maintain public peace and order in the territory of that State, For. Rel. 1906, II, 1203; also Mr. Knox, Secy. of State, to Mr. Squiers, Minister to Panama, April 19, 1909, For. Rel. 1909, 469.

In the proclamation of President Valdes of Panama, of April 7, 1917,

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

(c)

[§ 21

§ 21. The Dominican Republic.

By a convention of February 8, 1907, for the assistance of the United States in the collection and application of the customs revenues of the Dominican Republic,' it was agreed that the President of the United States should appoint a General Receiver of Dominican Customs, who (with such assistant receivers and other employees of the receivership similarly appointed) should collect all customs duties,2 applying the sums collected according to a specified plan. The Dominican Republic agreed not only to make provision for the payment of all customs duties to the General Receiver and his assistants and to give them all needful aid and assistance as well as protection "to the extent of its powers", but also that the Government of the United States should give to the General Receiver and his assistants "such protection as it may find to be requisite for the performance of their duties." 4 It was also agreed that until the Dominican Republic had paid the whole amount of the bonds of the debt mentioned in the convention, its public debt should not be increased except by a previous agreement between the Dominican Government and the United States."

concerning the coöperation of that Republic with the United States in war against Germany, it was said: "Our clear and indisputable duty in this dreadful hour of human history is that of a natural ally whose interests, and whose very existence, are linked in a perpetual and indissoluble manner with the United States of America, and this is the meritorious attitude which it is encumbent upon us to adopt." Declarations of War, Dept. of State, confidential document, 1919, 53, 54.

1 The preamble of the convention referred at length to the financial difficulties of the Dominican Republic, the magnitude of its indebtedness, created in part by revolutionary governments, the prevention of the peaceable and continuous collection of revenues for the payment of interest or principal of its debts, the arrangement of a conditional plan of settlement with foreign creditors, the issuance and sale of bonds for their benefit, and the conditioning of the plan upon the assistance of the United States in the collection and application of customs revenues to meet the interest and effect the amortization and redemption of the bonds. See Malloy's Treaties, I, 418.

2 Art. I. The period of such collection was to continue "until the payment or retirement of any and all bonds issued by the Dominican Government in accordance with the plan and under the limitations as to terms and amounts hereinbefore recited."

3 The funds received were to be applied "first, to paying the expenses of the receivership; second, to the payment of interest upon said bonds; third, to the payment of the annual sums provided for amortization of said bonds including interest upon all bonds held in sinking fund; fourth, to the purchase and cancellation or the retirement and cancellation pursuant to the terms thereof of any of said bonds as may be directed by the Dominican Government; fifth, the remainder to be paid to the Dominican Government." Art. I. 4 Art. II. See Jacob H. Hollander, "The Convention of 1907 between the United States and the Dominican Republic", Am. J., I, 287.

Art. III. It was here added: "A like agreement shall be necessary to

By the foregoing provisions it is believed that the Dominican Republic accepted the protection of the United States, for the period of the receivership, and for the sake of its benefits yielded to such American control as might be entailed. To that extent there was an impairment of independence, even though there was no establishment of a permanent status of dependency. Save as the convention implied restraint on account of the requirements of the receivership, the Republic was not hampered in the control of its foreign affairs.

It will be recalled that in November, 1916, the United States undertook the military occupation of Dominican territory by a naval force on account of the failure of the Republic to observe the terms of the convention with respect to the increase of its public debt and by reason of the resulting disturbance of domestic 'tranquillity.1

On December 24, 1920, the Department of State gave to the press a proclamation which the President had directed Rear-Admiral Snowden, the Military Governor of Santo Domingo, to issue, in which was announced the achievement of the purposes of the United States in the employment, pursuant to the treaty of 1907, of military forces within Dominican territory, the contemplated withdrawal of responsibilities assumed in connection with Dominican affairs, and the plan of appointing a Commission of Dominican citizens to formulate amendments to the Constitution and a general revision of the laws of the Republic (including the drafting of a new election law), for submission, upon approval by the Military Government in occupation, to a Constitutional Convention and to the National Congress of the Dominican Republic.

§ 22. Haiti.

(d)

In order to remedy the existing condition of its finances, and to assist in the economic development and tranquillity of the modify the import duties, it being an indispensable condition for the modification of such duties that the Dominican Executive demonstrate and that the President of the United States recognize that, on the basis of exportations and importations to the like amount and the like character during the two years preceding that in which it is desired to make such modification, the total net customs receipts would at such altered rates of duties have been for each of such two years in excess of the sum of $2,000,000 United States gold."

See proclamation of Capt. H. S. Knapp, U. S. N., Nov. 29, 1916, Am. J., XI, Supp., 96; also editorial comment by Philip Marshall Brown, on "The Armed Occupation of Santo Domingo", in Am. J., XI, 394. See, also, Mr. Knox, Secy, of State, to the American Minister to the Dominican Republic, Jan. 23, 1912, For. Rel. 1912, 341.

4

HAITI

[§ 22 Republic, Haiti concluded a treaty with the United States September 16, 1915, whereby the latter undertook "by its good offices", to give its aid.2 The President of Haiti was to appoint, upon nomination by the President of the United States,3 a General Receiver and necessary aids, who were to collect, receive and apply all customs duties on imports and exports; and he was to appoint, upon like nomination, a Financial Adviser, to be an officer attached to the Ministry of Finance, clothed with broad advisory and constructive powers. Haiti undertook to give all needful aid to these officers and to the receivership, and the United States on its part agreed to "extend like aid and protection." 5 All sums collected and received by the General Receiver were to be applied according to a specified arrangement. The Government of Haiti undertook not to increase its public debt except by previous arrangement with the President of the United States, and not to contract any debt or assume any financial obligation unless the ordinary revenues of the Republic available for that purpose, after defraying the expenses of the Government, should be adequate to pay the interest and provide a sinking fund for the final discharge of such debt. Modification of customs duties was also rendered subject to agreement with the President of the United States; and there was assurance by Haiti to coöperate with the Financial Adviser in his recommendations. 8

There was arrangement for the establishment of an efficient constabulary to be composed of native Haitians," organized and officered by Americans to be appointed by the President of Haiti upon nomination by the President of the United States." 9

The Government of Haiti acquiesced in the important undertaking not to surrender any of the territory of the Republic by sale, lease, or otherwise, or jurisdiction over such territory, to any foreign government or power, or to enter into any treaty or contract with any foreign power or powers that would impair or tend to impair the independence of Haiti.10 It was agreed also that

139 Stat. 1654; also, in this connection, editorial comment by George A. Finch, Am. J., X, 859.

2 Art. I.

3 Art. II. Compare this provision with Art. I of the Convention with the Dominican Republic of Feb. 8, 1907, Malloy's Treaties, I, 419.

4 Id.

5 Art. III.

Art. V. See, also, Art. IV with respect to the classification of Haitian

debts.

7 Art. VIII.

8 Art. IX.

9 Art. X. The authority and ultimate organization of the constabulary were here described.

10 Art. XI. Art. XII made provision for the adjustment of pecuniary claims. VOL. I-2

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