PANAMA: Gold Mess

In his palace in Panama last week sat sturdy little President Dr. Juan Demosthenes Arosemena, smiling contentedly. He had just received official messages from Oscar Teran, the Governor of Chiriqui Province, and Captain Nicolas Sagel of the Panama police confirming that three weatherbeaten prospectors, stumbling into an abandoned mine shaft, had found a huge number of 50-lb. gold ingots, worth not $1,120,000 as previously reported (TIME, July 26). but some $3,000,000.

Everything was nicely in hand, read the reports to the President. Thirty Panama troopers with machine guns were already guarding the...

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