Executive Order 2526—Relating to the Exclusion of Chinese from the Panama Canal Zone

By virtue of the authority vested in me by the provisions of the Act of Congress approved August 21, 1916, entitled "An Act extending certain privileges of Canal employees to other officials on the Canal Zone, and authorizing the President to make rules and regulations affecting the health, sanitation, quarantine, taxation, public roads, self-propelled vehicles and police powers on the Canal Zone, and for other purposes, including provision as to certain fees, money orders and interest deposits", I do hereby establish the following Executive Order for the Canal Zone: Sec. 1. The Executive Order of January 9, 1908, extending to the Canal Zone Law No. 6 of 1904, of the Republic of Panama, is hereby repealed. Sec. 2. No Chinese person shall be allowed to enter into or remain in the Canal Zone, except as provided in this order; and any Chinese person found in the Canal Zone in contravention of the provisions of this order, shall be punished as hereinafter prescribed. Any Chinese person who shall come into the Canal Zone, with the intention of passing into the Republic of Panama, in contravention of the laws of the Republic of Panama, shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this section. Sec. 3. The master of any vessel, who shall knowingly bring into the Canal Zone on such vessel and land, or attempt to land, or permit to be landed, any Chinese person, except as provided for in this order, shall be punished in the manner hereinafter prescribed, for each Chinese person so brought into and landed in the Canal Zone, or attempted or permitted to be landed therein; provided, however, that when a vessel, having Chinese persons on board, comes within the Canal Zone in distress, or under stress of weather, or when a vessel, having Chinese persons on board, touches at a port of the Canal Zone on its voyage to any foreign port or place, such Chinese persons may be permitted to land when authorized by the Governor of The Panama Canal, but they must depart from the Canal Zone with the vessel on its leaving the port. Every person who aids or abets in the violation of this order shall be deemed equally guilty with the master of the vessel. Sec. 4. The master of any vessel from a foreign port, with one or more Chinese persons on board, stopping at a port in the Canal Zone, in addition to the other matters required to be reported by him, shall deliver to the customs official of such Canal port, when he delivers his manifest of cargo, or if there be no cargo when he makes legal entry of his vessel, a descriptive list of all Chinese persons on board of his vessel at the time of its arrival in the Canal Zone. Such list shall contain the names of such Chinese persons, and other particulars regarding them, shown by the ship's papers, and shall be sworn to and subscribed by the master before the customs official to whom the list is delivered; and the customs official is hereby authorized to administer the oath to the master, provided, that when a vessel passes through the Canal, without discharging or taking on cargo or passengers therein, the master of such vessel shall not be required to furnish the list of persons prescribed by this section. If the master of the vessel refuses to deliver the list as required by this section, or fails or refuses to take and subscribe the oath prescribed herein; or if the master of such vessel permits any Chinese person on board the ship to land in the Canal Zone except by authority of the Governor of The Panama Canal, he shall be deemed guilty of a violation of this section. Sec. 5. Chinese persons, arriving from foreign ports, who desire to enter the Canal Zone in transit to other countries, may be permitted to do so upon such conditions as the Governor of The Panama Canal may prescribe by general or special authorization. Sec. 6. No Chinese member of the crew of any vessel shall be paid off and discharged within sport of the Canal Zone, without the consent of the Panama Canal authorities, unless it be shown by the ship's articles that said Chinese member of the crew signed said articles at a port in the Canal Zone; and seamen or other members of a ship's crew of the Chinese race, when discharged at any port in the Canal Zone under authority of the Governor, may land and remain temporarily therein until a re-shipment is obtained by them, provided a bond in the sum of $500.00 in each case, is executed by such Chinese person, satisfactory to the shipping commissioner, and payable to the Governor of The Panama Canal, and his successors in office, and conditioned that the principal in the bond, in good faith, will obtain a re-shipment and leave the Canal Zone at the earliest date practicable, to be fixed by the shipping commissioner; and said bond may be forfeited, for the full amount thereof, in favor of The Panama Canal, by judgment in the district court of the Canal Zone, should the principal in said bond fail to comply with any of the conditions thereof. Sec. 7. This order shall not apply to diplomatic and consular agents of the Chinese government, who shall be entitled to be admitted into the Canal Zone upon proof of their official character; neither shall it apply to Chinese persons lawfully residing in the Canal Zone at the time of the promulgation of this order, but this shall not prevent their removal from the Canal Zone in accordance with the depopulation or deportation laws; neither shall this order apply to a Chinese person who is lawfully residing n the Republic of Panama at the time of the promulgation of this order, and such person shall be authorized to enter into and cross the Canal Zone in a like manner as is permitted to the residents of the Republic of Panama; neither shall this order apply to Chinese persons whose services have been contracted for by the United States, The Panama Canal, or Panama Railroad Company, or any of the auxiliaries of the Canal or the Railroad Company; nor to domestic servants and others employed by persons engaged in the service of the Army or Navy of the United States, stationed in the Canal Zone, when such employment is with the sanction of the respective commanding officers of such forces on the Isthmus; nor shall it apply to any Chinese person coming into the Canal Zone by authority of the Governor of The Panama Canal. Sec. 8. The Governor of The Panama Canal is hereby authorized to establish rules and regulations to more effectively carry out this order. Sec. 9. A violation of any of the provisions of this order shall be punished by a fine not to exceed $500.00 or imprisonment not to exceed one year, or both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court, in conformity with the above mentioned Act of Congress approved August 21, 1916. Sec. 10. This order shall take effect sixty (60) days from and after its publication in the Panama Canal Record. WOODROW WILSON THE WHITE HOUSE, February 6, 1917.