711.5221/21: Telegram
The Acting Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Spain (Willard)
2199. Your 2635, May 11, 10 a.m.
You will address a note to the Foreign Office textually as follows:
“In Your Excellency’s note of May 9, 1919, you set forth in detail your acceptance, with certain reservations, of the conditions contained in my note of May 8, 1919, by which my Government informed the Spanish Government of the withdrawal of the notice of termination, of the Treaty of Friendship and General Relations of July 3, 1902, previously given by my Government. In order that Your Excellency may clearly understand the views of my Government concerning the reservations set forth in your note of May 9, I have the honor to state that my Government has instructed me to communicate its views to you as follows:
- 1.
- With regard to Your Excellency’s acceptance of the termination as of July 1, 1916, of the provisions of Articles 23 and 24 of this Treaty which are inconsistent with the Act of Congress approved March 4, 1915, on the understanding that Consuls of the United States in Spain will not exercise the powers of which Spanish Consuls in the United States are deprived by the provisions of the American Seamen’s Act, I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that this Government agrees to the termination of the rights exercised by Consuls of the United States in Spain in so far as the powers of Spanish Consuls in the United States are terminated because certain of the provisions of Articles 23 and 24 are in conflict with the provisions of the Act of Congress approved March 4, 1915.
- 2.
- As regards the assurances given on behalf of His Majesty’s Government concerning the imposition of the transport tax, or a similar tax, on coal and coke, my Government understands that in the event that the Spanish Government revives the transport tax on coal and coke imposed by the law of March 20, 1900, or shall enact new legislation of a similar kind, treatment will be accorded by such revived law or by any new legislation upon an equality with the treatment accorded coal and coke transported between Spain and the most favored nation as long as this treaty or Articles 2, 7 and 8 thereof remain in force.
- 3.
- Furthermore, my Government understands that in case the Spanish Government revives the transport tax on ‘several articles among which are included cotton, petroleum, hoops and lime [Page 65] phosphates’, referred to in Your Excellency’s note, which Your Excellency states are now exempted from the payment of the transport tax by virtue of the provisions of Article 18 of the so-called law of Maritime Communications of June 14, 1909, and the Royal Decree of January 28, 1910, issued by the Ministry of Fomento, or shall enact new legislation similar to the transport tax, all of these articles will be treated by such revived law or by any new legislation upon an equality with the treatment accorded these articles when transported between Spain and the most favored nation as long as this treaty or Articles 2, 7 and 8 thereof remain in force.
- 4.
- With respect to the observations made in Your Excellency’s note regarding the inability of His Majesty’s Government to contract an obligation to grant to passengers and cargoes in each direction between the United States and Spain equality of treatment with passengers and cargoes of the most favored nation, my Government instructs me to say that in refraining from further insistence upon this point at the present time my government does so without prejudice to its opening the question again hereafter should it be deemed appropriate to do so.
In conclusion, I beg to state under instructions of my government that the assurances of Your Excellency which are set forth in your note of May 9th, and which are understood in the sense herein indicated, are regarded as sufficiently fulfilling the conditions mentioned in my note of May 8 withdrawing the notice of termination of the treaty of 1902, and in consideration of the understanding reached, I have the honor to advise you on behalf of the government of the United States that this notice of termination stands withdrawn as if never given.
In this relation my government asks to be informed whether it will be necessary for the Spanish Government to issue any decrees or to enact any legislation to put this arrangement in effect. In case such acts are necessary, my Government expresses the hope that such decrees or legislation as may be necessary to bring existing laws into harmony with the provisions of this arrangement will be enacted promptly and that steps will be taken for that purpose immediately by the Spanish Government.
In this connection my government instructs me to call attention to the fact that, in the note which I had the honor to deliver to you, pursuant to instructions from my government, on April 11, 1919, and subsequent correspondence, the law imposing the transport tax was referred to by inadvertence as the law of July 20, 1900. The law which my government intended to refer to was the law of March 20, 1900, and I have the honor to request your Excellency to inform me that you understand that reference was made to the law of March 20, 1900 in our previous correspondence concerning this matter.”
In this relation you are instructed to obtain official copies of the law of Maritime Communications of June 14, 1909, and of the Royal Decree of January 28, 1910, and to forward them to the Department.