File No. 19654/9.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Sherrill.
Washington, May 16, 1910.
Sir: I acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 279, of March 14, 1910, transmitting correspondence with the foreign office regarding the applicability of the terms of the treaty of friendship, commerce, and navigation, of 1853, between the United States and the Argentine Republic, to the concession granted by the Argentine Government to the Western Telegraph Co., a British corporation, and to the concession previously granted by the Argentine Government to the Central and South American Telegraph Co. of New York, which company complains that its rights are endangered in consequence of governmental discrimination in favor of the British company.
Article III of the treaty of 1853 covers “any favors, exemption, privilege, or immunity whatever in matters of commerce and navigation” and therefore if the concession sought by the British corporation, the Western Telegraph Co., is an exclusive one, the representations made in the note of July 17, 1909, which you addressed to the foreign office in accordance with the department’s telegraphic instructions of July 16, 1909, and those of your note of March 14, 1910, which you addressed to the foreign office in pursuance of the department’s mail instruction No. 24, of September 3, 1909, were well founded, and the department commends your action in the matter.
[Page 66]The protection and the expedition of the needs of commerce through the medium of the quickest and cheapest means of communication, is a principle recognized as one of prime importance in modern commercial practice. Any favor or privilege limiting this principle must be held as contravening the intent of the treaty of 1853, the object of which was to promote the commerce between the United States and the Argentine Republic and to guarantee to the citizens of the United States equal privileges and facilities with those granted or to be granted by the Argentine Government to the citizens or subjects of any other Government, Nation, or State.
Supposing that the grant to the Western Telegraph Co. is to give that company the exclusive control of cable communication between the Argentine Republic and Brazil, then the right of the Central and South American Telegraph Co., an American corporation, now operating in the Argentine Republic, would be set aside, and the extension of its lines to Brazil, by cable or otherwise, for the purpose of commerce, of interest alike to citizens of the United States and of the Argentine Republic, would be made impossible.
You will continue discreetly to refer to this matter whenever, in your opinion, such a course would be advantageous to American interests.
I am, etc.,