Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 57 Part 2.djvu/663

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57 STAT.] PANAMA-INTER -AMERICAN HIGHWAY--May 15. 1943 1299 June 7, 1943 [Translation] DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN RELATIONS D.P . No. 5198 DIPLOMATIC DIVISION PANAMA, May 16, 1943. MR. AMBASSADOR: It gives me pleasure to refer to this Ministry's aide-memoire of March 3, 1942 [1] informing the Embassy that the Government of Panama desired to avail itself of the benefits of law 375 of the Congress 55 Stat. 860. of the United States on the construction of the Inter-American High- way and that it agreed to assume one third of the total cost of said work in the Panamanian section. By this means I now reiterate formally to Your Excellency that the Government of Panama will assume one third of the expenses incurred by the United States in the survey and construction of the section of the Inter-American Highway to be constructed within the limits of the Republic of Panama in accordance with the provisions of the above-mentioned law 375. This percentage will amount to the sum of $2,200,000.00 approximately in accordance with what Your Excel- lency told me in the Embassy's informal memorandum of May 1.['] Since in that informal memorandum an indication is requested regarding the specific source from which the funds will come for the payment of this one-third part corresponding to Panama, I inform Your Excellency that it is the plan of my Government to obtain an internal loan with this object in view. In this form, the Government of the Republic of Panama is ready to contribute its share to the realization of this work of such import- ance to the defense and the future of the hemisphere. Accept, Excellency, the reiterated assurances of my highest and most distinguished consideration. ()CTAVIO FkBREGA Mlinister of Foreign Relations His Excellency EDWIN C. WILSON, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of America City. The American Ambassador to the Panamanian Acting MIinister of Foreign Relations EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA No. 626 Panamd, June 7, 194S EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Note D.P. No. 5198 of May 15, 1943, in which His Excellency Sefior Doctor Octavio I [Not printed.]