Washington, Dec. 23.
On behalf of the 21 republics of America, the President of Panama this evening telegraphed a note of protest to France, Great Britain and the Reich against violation of the 300-mile American neutrality zone during the Admiral Graf Spee naval encounter December 13.
The note, sent by the Panamanian President because it was the Panama Pan-American Conference which established the neutrality zone, warns the belligerents that action will be taken in future against any warship that may commit an act of war within the neutrality zone limits. All 21 republics have agreed, it is pointed out, they will take common action "to prevent belligerent vessels from approaching American coasts and entering American ports, even for repairs, if.they will have been guilty of prior acts of war within the zone of security established by the Panama Declaration."
Earlier in the day, the Chilean Foreign Ministry at Santiago published a communique announcing these "sanctions to be taken against offending warships. It emphasized that Chilean ports in future would remain closed to all ships which violated the Panama Declaration, Known for his ardent support of President Roosevelt during the neuttality revision debates, Senator George W. Norris, Independent of Nebraska, today rose against summary attempts by the American republics to enforce total respect for their 300- mile neutrality zone, "To establish arbitrarily," he said, "a zone 300 miles from our coasts in which no battle must take place and no gun shot be fired, is to assume jurisdiction that we do not possess and right which we do not enjoy." Havas,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.