File No. 412.11/32.

The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassado.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

Claimants who send their claims directly to the Department are being advised as follows:

In case you have not, in accordance with the Department’s suggestion heretofore given, already presented your claim against the Mexican Government to the Consultative Commission established by that Government for the hearing of such claims, the Department again advises you that the Mexican Government has constituted a Consultative Claims Commission, before which all claims against the Mexican Government for damages suffered by individuals or companies in connection with the recent political disturbances in Mexico may, in the first instance, be submitted. Moreover, you are advised that inasmuch as it appears that up to this time not all American claims have been presented to the Commission, and inasmuch as the time for filing the claims as fixed by the decree establishing the Commission has expired, the Department has arranged that such claims as have not yet been filed before the Commission may be submitted for its consideration by informal presentation through diplomatic channels. As two of the copies of your claim, as it has been filed in this Department, are now on file at the American Embassy at Mexico City the Ambassador will, upon specific request, unless you have already presented your claim to the Commission, file with the Mexican Foreign Office for presentation to the Commission one set of the papers already sent to the Embassy, with the distinct understanding, however, that the Ambassador can do nothing more than this, and that you must yourself, personally or by attorney, take all other needful measures in the premises. If you desire that your claim be thus presented [Page 944] to this Commission through the informal use of diplomatic channels it will be necessary for you immediately to advise either the Department or the American Embassy in Mexico City by telegraph of your wishes. You will understand that by thus presenting your claim to the Mexican Foreign Office the Government of the United States does not pass upon the propriety, equity, justice, or legality of your claim. These questions are left for further consideration and final determination in accordance with the rules and principles of international law applicable and controlling, when, if at all, it shall become necessary to consider the question of formally presenting your complaint as a diplomatic claim. The Mexican Government has heretofore announced that if the parties appearing before the Commission are dissatisfied with the findings of that tribunal, as approved or modified by the Mexican Treasury, they may pursue their judicial remedies in the ordinary courts. Inasmuch as any diplomatic representations regarding American claims will, under the principles of international law which control such matters, almost surely involve the question of the exhaustion of local remedies as afforded by the Mexican Government, and inasmuch as a failure so to exhaust the local remedies will almost certainly be pleaded by the Mexican Government in bar of representations by this Government in behalf of any claim so situated, the Department again suggests to you the desirability, if not indeed necessity, of presenting your claim to this Consultative Commission. It is understood that the Commission is to be guided not only by technical legal considerations but also by the broad equities of the case, and therefore in determining the course to be followed you will obviously have in mind the legal character of your claim and whether or not, under the principles of international law involved, the Mexican Government can be regarded as under any positive duty to make compensation for the damages you may have suffered in the course of the recent revolutionary activities.

You will immediately so notify all claimants filing claims directly with the Embassy, and will direct all consuls who have received claims and sent them to the Embassy similarly and immediately to advise claimants. In informally presenting claims to the Foreign Office for submission to the Commission in accordance with the specific request of claimants you will reserve all rights hereafter to make diplomatic representations in regard to any claim concerning which the determination of the Claims Commission seems not in accord with those principles of international law, equity and justice which should control the disposition of the given case.

Adee.