File No. 711.1216M/193.
The Department of State to the Mexican Embassy.
The Department of State has received from the Mexican ambassador a memorandum dated the 5th instant, in which it is stated that the printed specifications prepared by Engineer Ockerson for the construction of the levee along the west bank of the Colorado River, for the protection of Imperial Valley and other places, are radically contrary to the fundamental bases for the execution of said work as they appear in the notes last exchanged between the Department of State and the Mexican Embassy, and that the Mexican Government could not permit the work to proceed under the printed specifications.
The Department of State understands from the ambassador’s statement made on the evening of the 5th instant to the Secretary of State, and repeated on the morning of the 6th instant by telephone to the Solicitor for the Department of State, that negotiations have been instituted between the ambassador and Gen. Marshall, of the Department of the Interior, looking to the adjustment of the difficulties to which reference has been made.
Washington, January 6, 1911.