Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918

File No. 812.512/2047

The Ambassador in Mexico ( Fletcher) to the Secretary of State

No. 1241

Mexico, July 19, 1918.

Sir: I have the honor to enclose, herewith, the text and translation of a presidential decree imposing a tax on petroleum claims of five pesos per hectare or fraction thereof greater than one-half a hectare.

I have [etc.]

Henry P. Fletcher

[Enclosure—Translation]

Decree of July 8, 1918, imposing a tax on petroleum claims, amplifying Fraction 101 of Article 14 of the stamp law of 1906¹

I, Venustiano Carranza, Constitutional President of the United Mexican States, to the people thereof make known:

That in the use of the extraordinary powers vested in me in the Department of the Treasury, have seen fit to decree the following:

Article 1. Article 14, Fraction 101, of the Federal stamp law of 1906 is amplified by the addition of the following paragraph:

II. Those relating to the petroleum claim, for each hectare or fraction equal to or greater than half a hectare, of the area covered by each title, five pesos. The stamps shall bear an over-seal reading: “Petroleum titles”.

Article 2. Paragraphs II and III of the fraction amplified shall in future be numbered III and IV, respectively.

I, therefore, order that this be printed, published, distributed, and duly complied with.

Given at the Palace of the Executive Power of the Union, in Mexico, this eighth day of July, nineteen hundred and eighteen.

V. Carranza

[rubric]

1. Diario oficial, July 16, 1918.