File No. 812.0151/1.

The Secretary of State to the Mexican Ambassador .

No. 33.]

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of note No. 1240 dated March 30,1 from your excellency’s predecessor setting forth the views of your excellency’s Government relative to the rights of a consul in Mexico to display the flag of his nation, and requesting that the American Consul at Ensenada be instructed not to display unduly the American flag over the consular premises at that place.

In reply I am constrained to say that this request has been received with surprise, and that this Department is at a loss to understand, in view of the numerous proofs of friendship that have recently been shown to the Government of Mexico by this Government why the jefe político of northern Lower California should perceive any objection to the display of the American flag above the Consulate at Ensenada, especially under the conditions prevailing in Mexico at the present time.

Concerning the flying of the national flag as a question of right, the Department, after very careful consideration, feels quite sure that a reexamination of the authorities upon international law by the proper Mexican officers will convince your excellency’s Government that the display by a consul of the flag of his country is a thing which may be properly claimed as a right under international law and that [Page 904] the Mexican Government, by its practice in permitting the consul to display the flag on the national holiday of his country, and the legal adviser of the Mexican Foreign Office in the present instance by so recommending, appear to recognize this, notwithstanding the Mexican municipal law of 1859 cited by your excellency, which provides that commercial agents residing in Mexico may display the flags of their countries only when the town where they reside is besieged, or when a riot or sedition breaks out therein.

This Department is aware that the extent to which the right to display the flag can be exercised is variously stated; that some authorities limit it to solemn occasions and some to national holidays, while others merely state the right without limiting it. But since the reason for displaying the flag above the consular premises as recognized in international law is, as expressed in the consular treaties of the United States with other countries, “in order that the consular office or dwelling may be easily and generally known for the convenience of those who may have resort to them,” it would seem that the flag of the consul’s nation might be displayed at all times and not merely on certain holidays. And indeed this is the course that has been followed by American consuls at various places throughout the world, who, basing their action upon this ground, do now, as they have done in the past, daily display the national flag. This is likewise, it would appear, the practice of other nations.

Notwithstanding what has been said, and thinking that possibly some special reason growing out of local conditions might have induced the jefe político of northern Lower California to raise this question with particular reference to the American Consulate at Ensenada, this Department directed the consul there to make a report upon the matter. It learns from him that when he first arrived at Ensenada conditions throughout northern Lower California were such as to make it highly desirable to display the American flag daily, and that nothing has since occurred to suggest the advisability of discontinuing the practice. The consul also remarks in effect that while so far as he knows the display of the flag may probably, under the provisions of Mexican legislation, be contingent upon the acquiescence of the local municipal authorities, yet he adds that since no objection to the appearance of the flag over the consulate, from either official or private sources, has ever come to his knowledge, there was no apparent reason why even under such law he should cease to display it. With this statement in evidence this Department must express its inability to understand why any exception should have been taken to the consul’s course, and I have the honor to say that the Government of the United States, in view of all that has been stated above, of the fact that the Consul at Ensenada in displaying the American flag has no other object than to identify the consular premises, and of the additional fact that such action may not, it would seem, be properly construed as offensive in any way to the Mexican Government, trusts that no necessity will be perceived for reiterating the request made in the note under acknowledgment.

I have the honor therefore to request that your excellency will be good enough to communicate the foregoing to the Mexican Government and to say that this Government regrets that it should have been thought necessary, and especially at the present time, to make this subject one for official representations, and hopes that in view of the [Page 905] long and sincere friendship uniting the Governments of Mexico and the United States the former Government will see fit fully to recognize the rules and principles of international law governing this matter and to refrain from insisting upon a strict compliance by American consuls with the provisions of the Mexican law of 1859 with regard to the matter, thus permitting them to display the American flag in such manner and at such times as their discretion dictates, unless in particular cases some good reason exists and can be shown why this should not be done.

Accept [etc.]

P. C. Knox.
  1. Not printed.