Office of the Historian

Mr. McCreery to Mr. Hay.

Embassy of the United States,
Mexico, May 7, 1902.
No. 1348.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose copy and translation of a treaty of compulsory arbitration between Spain and Mexico, signed in this city on January 11, 1902, and promulgated by the President of Mexico on the 19th ultimo.

I have, etc.,

Fenton R. McCreery.
[Inclosure—Translation.]

Treaty between Mexico and Spain.

Porfirio Diaz, President of the United Mexican States, to all to whom these presents may come:

Know ye, that on the eleventh day of January of the current year there was signed and concluded in this city, by plenipotentiaries duly authorized for the purpose, a treaty between the United Mexican States and the Kingdom of Spain in the form and tenor following:

The President of the United Mexican States and His Majesty the King of Spain and, in his name, the Queen Regent of the Kingdom, with the object of settling all [Page 814] questions which might disturb the friendly relations which happily exist between the nations, have decided to celebrate a treaty of arbitration, and to this end they have appointed their respective plenipotentiaries:

By the President of the United Mexican States, Licentiate Ignacio Mariscal, secretary of state and of the office of foreign affairs;

By His Majesty the King of Spain and, in his name, the Queen Regent of the Kingdom, Don Pedro de Prat, Marquis Prat y Nantouillet, his envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary at Mexico, who, after having examined their respective powers and having found them to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following:

  • Article 1. The high contracting parties agree to submit to the decision of arbitrators all controversies which may arise between them during the existence of the present treaty in which they might not have been able to reach an amicable solution by direct negotiation; provided that said controversies affect neither the national independence nor honor.
  • Article 2. Neither the national independence nor honor shall be considered to be compromised in the following cases:
    A.
    When treating of pecuniary damages and prejudices suffered by one of the contracting states or by its citizens because of illegal acts or omissions on the part of the other contracting state or its citizens.
    B.
    When treating of the interpretation of the treaties, agreements, and conventions relating to the protection of ownership of artistic, literary, and industrial property, as well as to that of privileges, patents of inventions, trade-marks, mercantile firms, money, weights and measures, and sanitary precautions, either veterinary or to exclude phylloxera.
    C.
    When treating of the application of treaties, agreements, and conventions relating to successions, aid, and judicial correspondence.
    D.
    When treating of treaties, agreements, and conventions now in force, or which may be celebrated hereafter, with the object of putting the principles of public or private international law, either civil or penal, into practice.
    E.
    When treating of questions which relate to the interpretation or execution of treaties, agreements, and conventions of friendship, commerce, and navigation.
  • Article 3. For the decision of questions which, in accordance with this treaty, may be submitted to arbitration, the functions of arbitrator shall be conferred with preference upon a chief of state of one of the Spanish-American Republics, or upon a tribunal formed of Mexican, Spanish, or Spanish-American judges and experts.
  • In the case of not agreeing in the appointment of arbitrators the high-contracting parties shall submit themselves to the permanent international tribunal of arbitration established in accordance with the resolutions of The Hague conference of 1899 with adherence in the latter, and in the former case to the arbitral procedure specified in Chapter III of the said resolutions.
  • Article 4. The present treaty shall continue in force for ten years, counting from the date of the exchange of its ratifications.

In the case that neither of the high contracting parties shall have declared within twelve months before the expiration of the said term its intention to terminate the operations of the present treaty, it will continue to be obligatory for one year after one or the other of the high contracting parties shall have abrogated the same.

This treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged in Mexico so soon as possible.

In testimony whereof the plenipotentiaries have signed and sealed the same, in duplicate, in Mexico on the eleventh day of January of the year one thousand nine hundred and two.

  • Ignacio Mariscal.
  • El Marques de Prat de Nantouillet.

The foregoing treaty was approved by the Chamber of Senators of the United Mexican States on the tenth day of the present April.

It was ratified by me on the fourteenth day of the same.

Her Majesty the Queen of Spain approved and ratified the foregoing treaty on the tenth of March last, and

The ratifications were exchanged on the fourteenth instant.

Wherefore I order that it be printed, published, circulated, and duly observed.

Palace of the Federal Government, Mexico, April 19, 1902.

Porfirio Diaz.