313.1113 Sustaita, Antonio/37
The Chargé in Mexico (Boal) to the Secretary of State
[Received July 6.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 1589 of June 16, 1937, regarding the murder of Antonio Sustaita, an American citizen.
With further reference to my despatch No. 4810 of June 2, 1937, I have the honor to report that I have again discussed this matter with Licenciado Beteta, Undersecretary of State. In my conversation with Licenciado Beteta I referred orally to the precedents cited in the Department’s instruction under reference and pointed out in particular that the Mexican Government’s position seems to have been established in unequivocal terms in its note of November 20, 193112 to the State Department at Washington in connection with the deaths of Emilio Cortés Rubio and Manuel García Gómez. In this connection I have the honor to enclose, for the Department’s convenient reference, a copy of a personal letter of December 8, 193113 from Ambassador Clark to Mr. Herschel V. Johnson, then in the Division of Mexican Affairs, regarding this case.
I pointed out quite informally to Licenciado Beteta that if it was the Mexican Government’s intention to change its theory and policy with regard to liabilities of governments, it could not but produce an unfavorable impression to have this change occasioned by the case of a most brutal and cold-blooded murder for which adequate punishment had not been provided. I told him that it would seem to me that if it was indeed as he indicated the purpose of the Mexican Government to change its position from that already stated in its note of November 20, 1931, I thought it would be more fitting if this were done after some adjustment of the Sustaita case has been reached. I pointed out that this would tend to relieve the action of any implication that it was being taken merely for the purpose of avoiding the payment of an indemnity in the case in question.
Licenciado Beteta agreed with me that the Mexican Government would stand in a much better light if it could first make the settlement of the Sustaita case and then proceed to define a policy according to its present views. I gathered that Licenciado Beteta had it in mind to outline the policy of the Mexican Government according to his own theories on the subject of responsibility. He said that the principal [Page 714] difficulty lay in finding a legal means by which an indemnity could be paid without having to take the matter to the Mexican Congress for an appropriation where discussion and possible defeat was to be anticipated. He said, however, that he would study the matter with a view to trying to find some way of adjusting it by an indemnity, and would let me know the result of his studies. The above conversation was, of course, quite informal.
Respectfully yours,
- Foreign Relations, 1931, vol. ii, p. 723.↩
- Not printed.↩