director, and if he could not fall in with the policy of the majority owners it would be obligatory upon him, I should think, to resign. Senator MORGAN. He would have to resign?

Mr. DRAKE. Yes, sir.

Senator MORGAN. Boyard never intimated that he intended to resign. did he?

Mr. DRAKE. Oh, no, sir.

Senator MORGAN. He did not resign?

Mr. DRAKE. He did not resign. I never have owned but one share in the stock, and have always been a representative director, as I am to-day, of the United States Government in the property.

Senator MORGAN. Yes; but you do not have any connection with the Panama Canal Company?

Mr. DRAKE. I owned one share then, sir, and I do now; I have always owned my stock.

Senator MORGAN. In the Panama Canal Company?

Mr. DRAKE. Not in the Panama Canal Company; no, sir. I never had anything to do with that. I never met any of the canal people. Senator MORGAN. Was Mr. Cromwell the holder of any stock in the Panama Canal Company, either the new or the old, so far as you knew?

Mr. DRAKE. No, sir; not that I know of.

Senator MORGAN. I intended, Mr. Drake, to examine you on various other points in this matter; but you have given some statements about it in your former deposition, and I believe I will stand on them rather than to detain you, as I understand that you have some family reasons for desiring to be absent.

Mr. DRAKE. I do not seek to hurry the action of the committee at all, gentlemen. I only wanted to get some idea of when the committee would be through with me, so that I might let the people in New York know when I was coming. It is important that I should be there to-day; but I am here, and I will stay here as long as the committee desires.

Senator MORGAN. I understood from the chairman that you had some personal family reasons for wanting to return.

Mr. DRAKE. My wife is very ill, and was when I came.

Senator MORGAN. That is what I understood, and that is the reason I said I would not continue the examination in reference to some matters I desired to examine you about, because I thought that perhaps they were explained, if not sufficiently, at any rate to a certain extent in your former deposition.

Mr. DRAKE. I thank you extremely for your courtesy.

(Mr. Drake left with the clerk of the committee the reports of the Panama Railroad Company for the years 1896 to 1905, both inclusive.) (The committee thereupon adjourned until to-morrow, Thursday. April 26, 1906, at 10.30 o'clock a. m.)

(The papers referred to by Senator Morgan during the foregoing examination, and which are printed by direction of the committee, are as follows:)

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, May 15, 1902.

SIR: I have the honor to inclose copies of letters from the Colombian minister, dated the 31st of March and the 18th and 23d of April, accompanied by the letter of exposition and the letter of William Nelson

PC-VOL 3-0664

Cromwell, both dated the 31st of March, referred to in the minister's letter of that date; and also a memorandum of a convention which the Government of Colombia is ready to sign with that of the United States of America, respecting the completion, maintenance, control, and protection of an interoceanic canal over the Isthmus of Panama. I also inclose a copy of a letter which I addressed to the minister of Colombia on the 21st of April, announcing that I am directed by the President to inform him that I shall be ready to sign with him the proposed convention as soon as the Congress of the United States shall have authorized the President to enter into such an arrangement and the law officers of this Government shall have decided upon the question of the title which the New Panama Canal Company is able to give of all the properties and rights claimed by it and pertaining to a canal across the Isthmus and covered by the pending proposal. I inclose also a project of a treaty presented to me this day by the minister of Nicaragua in behalf of his Government. I have not yet received a definite proposition from the Government of Costa Rica, but am informed by the Costa Rican minister that his Government is ready to enter into satisfactory arrangement with that of the United States on the basis of the protocol of December 1, 1900; but that, as set forth in the recent message of President Iglesias, an extract from which I inclose, it will be necessary that the Government of Costa Rica should, before entering into positive negotiations with that of the United States of America, adopt a constitutional amendment authorizing the necessary concessions for the construction of an interoceanic canal, or to have the matter referred to public opinion in some other way by calling a constituent assembly for the purpose. I am assured by the Costa Rican Government that these steps will be taken as soon as the Congress of the United States shall decide the question of the route of the canal.

I also inclose, in accordance with the request of the Nicaraguan minister, a copy of the protocol entered into between this Government and those of Nicaragua and Costa Rica December 1, 1900.

I have the honor to submit all these documents to your committee, with the hope that this definite information as to the purposes and intentions of the Nicaraguan, Colombian, and Costa Rican Governments may be of service to you in determining the question of the route of the proposed interoceanic canal.

In view of the great interests involved, the President wishes me to express to you a and to the committee of which you are chairman his earnest hope that there may be as little delay as possible in the legislation which will authorize the beginning of this work, which he regards as so important and so beneficient to this country and the world. I am, sir, very truly, your obedient servant,

Hon. WILLIAM P. HEPBURN,

JOHN HAY.

Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce,
House of Representatives.

Hon. JOHN HAY,

LEGACION DE COLOMBIA, Washington, D. C., March 31, 1902.

Secretary of State of the United States:

I have the honor to hand your excellency the proposal of the Republic of Colombia for a concessionary convention or treaty between the Republic of Colombia and the United States of America respecting the completion, maintenance, operation, control, and protection of the interoceanic canal over the Isthmus of Panama.

I soon shall hand you a letter of exposition, and also have requested Mr. William Nelson Cromwell, general counsel of the New Panama Canal Company, to present you a statement which I have approved. Please accept these additional communications in connection with the proposed treaty.

I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to your excellency the assurance of my high consideration.

JOSÉ VICENTE CONCHA.

[Translation.]

Hon. JOHN HAY,

LEGATION OF COLOMBIA, Washington, D. C., March 31, 1902.

Secretary of State of the United States:

The undersigned envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the Republic of Colombia has the honor to supplement the note which he had the honor to hand to the honorable Secretary of State, together with the memorandum setting forth the bases of a treaty between Colombia and the United States for the purpose of securing the authorization of Colombia for the New Panama Canal Company to transfer its rights and privileges to the American Government and of regulating the relations between the contracting parties in respect of this enterprise.

The bases have been formulated after a serious and mature consideration of those which were submitted to the legation on the subject by the president of the Isthmian Canal Commission, which had been instrusted by the honorable Secretary of State with the discussion of the question. The intent of these bases has been to condense the most liberal terms that could be granted by Colombia in the matter.

The Republic that I represent realizes the importance of the contemplated interoceanic waterway for the civilization and progress of the world, and since nature has placed the shortest and most expeditious route within the territory of the Republic, Colombia widely and generously opens her doors so that the grand work may be achieved within the shortest possible time.

If the people of the United States evince an earnest desire that their Government apply its energies and treasure to the completion of the canal, Colombia not only will not place any obstacle whatever in the way of such a purpose or keep her concessions within the bounds of those previously conceded to private enterprise, but will enlarge those concessions to such an extent as to renounce a demand for the ownership after the lapse of a number of years of operation, as stipulated in

the French company's contract; she will grant the use of a much more extensive zone than that originally conceded for the execution of the work; extend facilities in all the ports of the Republic for cooperation in the work of the enterprise, relinquish her proprietary and usufructuary rights in the Panama Railway, and lastly, foregoes a fixed participation in the proceeds of the canal, confining her demands to a fee or annuity for the price of the zone, the revenues of the railway, and the heavier expenses put upon the public administration in the Isthmus by the increase of population and the traffic consequent to the work on the canal itself.

Thus does Colombia give fresh evidence of her long standing and cordial sentiments of friendship toward the United States and evinces in a clear and sincere manner the gratification with which she will receive the industrious and intelligent citizens of your Republic in her territory.

Colombia has no lust of unjust gain through the construction of the canal in her territory, and a final convention on this subject will not be hampered by pecuniary considerations. Her pride in the matter is bent on having the neutral waterway between the two oceans, that ideal of universal peace and progress, become a reality on her territory and under the protection of her sovereignty. The compensations asked by Colombia have special importance only in that they will imply a practical and constant recognition of her sovereignty.

The undersigned has no doubt that the mere perusal of the memorandum will bring forward the justice and equity of the propositions which, if accepted, would be perfected in the same spirit.

The undersigned embraces this opportunity to reiterate to the honorable Secretary the assurances of his highest and most distinguished consideration.

JOSE VICENTE CONCHA.

SULLIVAN & CROMWELL,
New York, March 31, 1902.

SIR: In connection with the presentation by Señor Jose Vicenté Concha, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary from the Republic of Colombia, of a proposed concessionary convention or treaty between the United States and Colombia, to further the completion, operation, control, and protection of the Panama Canal by the United States, I have been requested by the minister, in view of my relation to the subject as general counsel of the Panama Canal Company, and of my knowledge of the minister's views derived from our daily conferences in the preparation of the treaty, to submit the following reflections:

Colombia welcomes the United States to its territory, and will facilitate in every way reasonable within its power the consummation of the desires and needs of the United States for the completion, operation, maintenance, control and protection of the interoceanic canal across its domain, subject, of course, to the sovereignty of Colombia, and a reasonable and just convention between the two nations.

Colombia views with admiration, as does the rest of the world, the splendid magnanimity, the far-seeing statemanship, the virile and comprehensive policy which moves this people to construct the greatest undertaking which ever has engaged the attention of mankind, not for

its own benefit alone, nor with selfish preference to its own commerce, but for the common benefit, upon equal terms and under universal neutrality in times of peace for all the peoples of the earth.

History does not furnish another instance of such national generosity, patriotism, and wisdom.

This could not but call out from Colombia the warmest response; and that nation takes pride in associating herself with an affair conducted upon such an elevated plane of national and international duty and concern.

The Isthmian Canal Commission, a most distinguished and able body, selected with such care by President McKinley to consider all possible isthmian canal routes and to determine which of them it is most to the interest of the United States to acquire, has reported unanimously that the Panama route is the most practicable and feasible route for an isthmian canal to be under the control, management, and ownership of the United States. Therefore the solution of the problem only involves two other conditions:

1. The sale by the New Panama Canal Company to the United States of the concession, property, and rights of the canal, with the shares of the Panama Railroad Company.

2. A new concessionary convention or treaty with Colombia.

3. The first of these two conditions already has been made easy of fulfillment in the formal acceptance by the New Panama Canal Commission of the valuation fixed by the Isthmian Canal Commission$40,000,000-and by its duly authorized proposal to the United States for a sale of the property at that price (subject, of course, to a satisfactory convention being arrived at between the United States and Colombia).

The sole remaining condition, then, is the determination of the concessionary and treaty relations of the United States to a zone of territory across the Isthmus of Panama necessary for the consummation of the undertaking.

There has not been a moment in which Colombia has not entertained the keenest desire to further the designs of the United States, and this sentiment has prevailed under each succeeding administration in Colombia and alike in both of the great national parties who alternately have ruled in that country.

This sentiment is neither new born nor inspired by hope of pecuniary gain. The two nations are old friends, and this feeling assumed practical form in 1846, when the treaty of that year was made, which expressly provided for the construction of this canal; in furtherance of which Colombia guaranteed to the United States the free transit of the Isthmus, and granted extraordinary concessions to the people and commerce of the United States, upon terms of perfect equality with its own citizens, while the United States, in turn, guaranteed the neutrality of the Isthmus and of the canal to be constructed upon it, as well as the sovereignty of Colombia over that territory.

It is a significant fact that this treaty of 1846-1848, assuring to the United States especial rights and privileges upon the Isthmus of Panama in connection with any interoceanic canal or railroad across the Isthmus of Panama, antedates the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The treaty of 1846-1848 is in full force, as it has continued to be without change from the date of its execution.