1942: Panama

Details regarding military collaboration within the critical Caribbean and Central American area, all the countries of which are cobelligerents with the United States, are necessarily withheld from publication. By an agreement signed on May 18 and by other agreements concluded before the war, the United States is entitled to use numerous defense, aviation and practice areas in the Republic of Panama and the Gulf of Fonseca. The largest of these is the Rio Hato air base, eighty miles southwest of the Panama Canal. The United States has paid the Panama Government over $21,000,000 for land taken by the U. S. Army for use as an airfield and training center. The administration of Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia, who took over the presidency in October 1941, has been unquestioning and unstinted in its cooperation with the United States, a very significant fact in the defense of the vital Isthmian waterway. His regime has meant many internal reforms.

Following strenuous debate, a joint resolution transferring United States-owned lands and facilities to the Government of Panama, under agreements already negotiated by the State Department, was passed by the United States Senate on Dec. 4, by a vote of 40-29, in spite of minority charges that the executive branch of the Government was trying to usurp the Senate's treaty-making powers. The bill remains to be passed by the House of Representatives. This legislation turns over water and sewer systems installed in Panama City and Colón, which are wholly within the jurisdiction of the Republic of Panama, as well as certain commercial and building lots in those cities, valued at $11,500,000. It also cancels a $2,500,000 Export-Import Bank loan, representing Panama's share in the construction of the Rio Hato highway leading to vital air bases. The United States will bear the whole cost of constructing and maintaining this highway, as a military enterprise of the United States. Under the revised treaty of 1936, the United States was left with the responsibility for Panama's sanitation and for effective operation and protection of the Panama Canal. As a result, ownership of the above properties remained in the hands of the United States, a fact that has been repugnant to Panama's sense of national sovereignty. This latest agreement should relieve resentment, therefore, and serve as positive demonstration of the Good Neighbor policy at a time when the relation between Panama and the United States, always delicate, is of the greatest importance.

Announcement was made in July of an all-weather 'pioneer' road (see COSTA RICA), to be financed by the United States, to extend from the railhead in Mexico to the Panama Canal Zone. This undertaking does not modify the plan for a permanent Inter-American highway, authorized Dec. 26, 1941, but is an emergency measure to promote the movement of freight and possibly of troops. Its strategic importance is obvious. It should also relieve the acute transportation difficulties of the Central American countries. All of the nations of Central America have given their consent, and in August surveying was reported to have begun, with the expectation that construction would soon follow. It is estimated that only 625 mi. of totally new road would be required.