Hull-Alfaro Treaty (1936)

Hull-Alfaro Treaty (1936), an agreement signed on 2 March by the United States and Panama that made certain concessions regarding the operation of the Panama Canal in keeping with Franklin Roosevelt's Good Neighbor Policy. It did not, however, alter the relationship of great power-client state established in the Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903. The treaty, ratified reluctantly by the U.S. Senate only in 1939, did not mollify Panamanian nationalists for long.

Initiative for reforming canal operating policies came in 1933, when Panama's president, Harmodio Arias, visited Washington to explain his country's economic problems stemming from the Depression. Between 1933 and 1936, Roosevelt's secretary of state, Cordell Hull, and Arias's foreign minister, Ricardo Alfaro, labored to produce several treaties and agreements that would make good neighbors of the two countries. The United States gave up its protectorate role and powers of territorial acquisition, and it raised the annuity payment to $436,000 to compensate for the devaluation of the dollar. Hull also agreed to curtail commissary sales to those not employed by the canal, to curb contraband, to give Panamanian merchants access to passing ships, and to allow Panamanians free transit across the Canal Zone. Finally, an ancillary note promised equal employment treatment of Panamanian and U.S. nationals.

The armed services opposed most of these measures and fought ratification by the Senate. The main elements were approved only upon a special appeal by Roosevelt to set the stage for an inter-American defense conference in Panama. The outbreak of World War II, meanwhile, made the canal a major security concern and postponed effective implementation of many parts of the treaty.

See alsoGood Neighbor Policy; Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty (1903); Roosevelt, Franklin Delano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

William D. McCain, The United States and the Republic of Panama (1937; repr. 1966).

John Major, Prize Possession: The United States and the Panama Canal, 1903–1977 (1993).

                                     Michael L. Conniff