[Enclosure—Translation—Extract]
DAPP Release Dated December 23, 1938
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
As the Senate can see, the arrangement which our Government has
reached with that of the United States as contained in the above
notes does not submit to arbitration the conduct of the Government
of Mexico and Mexican legislation. The arrangement bears exclusively
on the amount of American claims, and not upon questions of
principle.
Attention should be called to the fact that the Government of the
United States agrees that payment for agrarian expropriations need
not be made previously nor even immediately, as it had at first
claimed, but will be made subsequent to said expropriations, and in
annual installments. I also wish to call the attention of the Senate
to the fact that, despite the request which the United States has
continued to make, Mexico does not commit herself to the suspension
of her agrarian policy, not even for the duration of the
negotiations.
[Page 655]
Pursuant to this line of conduct, the Government has continued to
handle agrarian cases affecting the properties of foreigners, such
as the dotations made in Los Mochis, State of Sinaloa, on the 9th
and 11th of this month, affecting a total area of 228,343.40
hectares; and from Las Rusias and La Mariposa, Municipality of
Muzquiz, State of Coahuila, which were made on November 20 and
December 13th of the present year, affecting a total area of
13,270.68 hectares.
The above agreement between Mexico and the United States, although
contained in a simple exchange of notes, constitutes a Convention
according to the practices of Chancelry and the authorized opinion
of the most distinguished commentators on International Law (Hall’s
International Law, eighth edition, pp.
383–384, and the authorities therein cited), to which authorities we
must have recourse since the Constitution of the Republic does not
prescribe any definite form for treaties, requiring only that once
these have been negotiated by the Executive they shall be submitted
for approval and ratification to the Senate; in compliance,
therefore, with this provision of the Constitution, I submit to the
Senate, for its consideration and for ratification should it be
deemed advisable, the agreement contained in the notes quoted
above.
Lastly, I take pleasure in informing you that, as provided by the
Constitution, I am addressing to the Chamber of Deputies a proposal
that they authorize a special appropriation for the coming Fiscal
Year, so that the Government may be in a position to pay the
indemnities due the owners of lands expropriated under the agrarian
laws, with the understanding that—pursuant to the thesis which the
Federal Executive has firmly upheld to the Government of the United
States—the appropriation will be used to indemnify both foreign and
national landowners, so that there will be no discrimination against
the national dignity and the principles of Law.
I renew [etc.]
