File No. 711.1216M/321.
The Acting Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Interior.
Washington, February 19, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th instant, transmitting a report by the consulting engineers in regard to the utilization of the waters of the lower Colorado River, and suggesting that negotiations be initiated with Mexico for the early creation of an international commission, including in its membership both American and Mexican engineers, to investigate and report as to the most desirable method of distributing such waters.
In this connection I beg to refer to previous correspondence on this subject of the equitable distribution of the waters of the Colorado River, and especially to letters from this Department to the Interior Department of April 10, 1908 (File No. 3172/84), April 15, 1908 (File No. 3172/85–86), April 25, 1908 (File No. 3172/89),1 and May 22, 1908 (File No. 3172/92–94), and also to letters from this Department bearing dates of April 15, 1910 (transmitting a memorandum [Page 984] on the matter in question (File No. 17420/19), May 6, 1910 (File No. 17420/22), and May 9, 1910 (File No. 17420/22), with its enclosure.
You will observe that there is already in existence a commission organized for the purpose disclosed in the correspondence above referred to The subjects of investigation assigned to this commission include some of those which the commission proposed by you would have to undertake, as you will also see from the correspondence referred to. As at present composed, the existing commission is made up of Mr. Wilbur Keblinger for the United States, and Señor Puga for the Government of Mexico. The latter gentleman has, I believe, been delegated by the Mexican Government to perform certain duties in connection with the erection by this Government of the levee works in the Imperial Valley.
Before taking this question up again with the Mexican Government it would be advantageous to know whether it is your desire that the commission already existing, increased by the appointment of competent engineers by each Government, shall be utilized for the work your Department has now in mind, or whether you prefer that we propose to the Government of Mexico the abolition of this commission and the appointment of an entirely new one.
Upon receiving information from you upon this point I shall be glad to direct our Ambassador at Mexico City to take up the question with the Mexican Government with a view either of augmenting the present commission by the addition of the necessary engineers, or by abolishing the present commission and creating a new commission, as you may desire. It is probable that the latter course would entail a longer delay than the mere increasing of an existing commission.
I have [etc.],