diff --git a/src/c/symbol.d b/src/c/symbol.d
index 557a05a6c..df9da2c92 100644
--- a/src/c/symbol.d
+++ b/src/c/symbol.d
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 #include <ecl/ecl.h>
 #include <ecl/ecl-inl.h>
 #include <ecl/internal.h>
+#include <string.h>
 
 cl_object
 ecl_symbol_package(cl_object s)
@@ -127,8 +128,8 @@ ecl_make_keyword(const char *s)
 cl_object
 ecl_make_symbol(const char *s, const char *p)
 {
-  cl_object package = ecl_find_package(p);
-  cl_object x = _ecl_intern(s, package);
+  ecl_def_ct_base_string(pack_name,p,strlen(p),,);
+  cl_object x = _ecl_intern(s, pack_name);
   /* cl_export(x, keyword_package); this is implicit in ecl_intern() */
   return x;
 }