3032 JOINT RESOLUTIONS
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution be sent to
the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House
of Delegates.
Approved May 31, 1974.
No. 43
(Senate Joint Resolution 34)
A Senate Joint Resolution concerning
Panama Canal and Panama Canal Zone
FOR the purpose of supporting continued undiluted
sovereignty of the United States and jurisdiction by
the United States over the Panama Canal and the
Panama Canal Zone on the Isthmus of Panama.
WHEREAS, United States diplomatic representatives
are presently engaged in negotiations with
representatives of the de facto Revolutionary Government
of Panama, under a declared purpose to surrender to
Panama, now or on some future date, U.S. sovereign rights
and treaty obligations, as defined below, to maintain,
operate, protect, and otherwise govern the United
States—owned Canal and its protective frame of the Canal
Zone, herein designated as the "Canal" and the "Zone,"
respectively, situated within the Isthmus of Panama.
Title to and ownership of the Canal Zone, under the
right "in perpetuity" to exercise sovereign control
thereof, were vested absolutely in the United States and
recognized to have been so vested in certain solemnly
ratified treaties by the United States with Great
Britain, Panama, and Colombia, to wit:
(1) The Hay-Pauncefote Treaty of 1901 between the
United States and Great Britain, under which the United
States adopted the principles of the Convention of
Constantinople of 1888 as the rules for operation,
regulation, and management of the Canal; and
(2) The Hay-Bunau-Varilla Treaty of 1903 between the
Republic of Panama and the United States, by the terms of
which the Republic of Panama granted full sovereign
rights, power, and authority in perpetuity to the United
States over the Zone for the construction, maintenance,
operation, sanitation, and protection of the Canal to the
entire exclusion of the exercise by the Republic of
Panama of any such sovereign rights, power, or authority;
and
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