File No. 711.1216M/203.
The Mexican Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, January 9, 1911.
Excellency: Referring to the aide mémoire the Department of State was pleased to send me under date of the 6th instant in respect of the Colorado River defensive works, I have the honor to apprise your excellency—although I suppose that the Department of the Interior has already done so—that in conferences I had with Brig. Gen. Marshall, representing the Secretary of the Interior, the substantial modifications in the documents prepared by Engineer Ockerson1 were agreed upon so as to bring them into harmony with the bases arranged between your Department and this embassy.
[Page 555]Gen. Marshall, who recognized the justice of the observations presented by my Government, was pleased to state that telegraphic orders would be sent to Mr. Lawler in accordance with the agreement reached at the said conferences.
I venture to express my belief that the negotiations between the two Governments bearing on the matter considered in this note ended with my conferences with Gen. Marshall, inasmuch as the defensive works on the banks of the Colorado River are to be exclusively the subject of agreements between the Mexican company that is about to build them, are without any international character whatever, and therefore the adjustment of all matters that may hereafter arise will be exclusively subject to the concessions granted to the Colorado River Land Co. and to the pertinent provisions of law.
I take [etc.],
- Extract from letter of Mr. Lawler to the Secretary of the Interior, Jan. 5, 1911: “The objections advanced [by the Mexican Government] were to the recitals as to the source to which the contractor must look for compensation. * * * Mr. Creel’s contention was that these provisions secure to the United States rights in Mexican territory contrary to the agreement heretofore made through the State Department.” (File No. 711.-1216M/202.)↩