Mr. Uhl to Mr. Gray.
Washington, June 16, 1894.
Sir: I inclose herewith copy of a letter1 from Hon. T. M. Paschal, a member of Congress from Texas, covering communications from Mr. J. C. Loving, secretary of the Cattle Raisers’ Association of that State, and Mr. Robert W. Prosser, relative to the unsuccessful efforts of the latter to recover a horse stolen from him and held by the Mexican authorities in Ciudad Porfirio Diaz.
Mr. Paschal has been informed that no treaty stipulation in regard to the recovery of straying or stolen stock exists between the United States and Mexico, and, in the absence of exceptional regulation of the matter, owners of such stock on either side of the border have the same access to the courts of the other country in substantiation of their claim to ownership as citizens of the country.
A convention on the subject was signed at Washington by Mr. Bayard and Mr. Romero June 11, 1888, and was ratified, with amendments, by the Senate of the United States on October 1, 1888. By the fifth article thereof it was stipulated that—
When cattle belonging in one country have been stolen and driven by thieves to the territory of the other, and subsequently recovered by the proper authorities, they shall be held for return to their lawful owner when he shall appear, in which case no duty shall be payable, and no charges save for the keep of the cattle.
This convention has not yet been ratified by Mexico.
It is the Department’s desire that you confer with the minister for foreign affairs, to the end of seeking a remedy for the state of things represented in the inclosed correspondence, and ascertaining the disposition of the Mexican Government in regard to the uncompleted convention of 1888.
In this connection I refer you to Department’s instruction to your predecessor, No. 523, of May 25, 1891, and his reply, No. 657, of the 2d of the following month.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.
- Not printed.↩