File No. 837.6112/25.
The Secretary of State to the American Minister.
Washington, January 11, 1913.
Sir: Referring to instruction No. 159, of October 28th last,3 on the subject of the Zapata Swamp concession, you are informed that the Department has had a number of conferences with Mr. Isaac K. Champion, representing the Compañía Agricultora de Zapata, the concessionaire of the proposed concession for the reclamation of the Zapata Swamp, and has now concluded its study of the matter.
Mr. Champion, on behalf of the company, has stated that the company is willing and proposes to attempt to have the concession contract amended by the inclusion of new provisions in effect as follows:
- (1)
- A provision attempting, in advance of the proposed survey, to [Page 366] define more exactly the boundaries of the swamp. This refers particularly to the southern boundary, which has been represented by Mr. Champion to be a ridge of high land extending from the eastern to the western limits of the swamp along its southern side, separating the true fresh-water ciénaga from the salt-water marsh to the south of the ridge in the Zapata peninsula.
- (2)
- A substitute provision for the present provisions respecting the rights of the private owners of land within the territory of the swamp, the new provision to provide that the company shall have the right to drain such privately owned land, if not drained by the owners, for a price to be paid by the owners equivalent to the cost of the work of draining their land plus a profit to the company on this work of ten per cent. It is further understood that adequate provision will be made to protect the rights of the private owners with respect particularly to the assessment of this cost.
- (3)
- A provision to the effect that, irrespective of the general grants of privileges to the concessionaire made by the concession contract, all merchantable timber on Government lands drained or to be drained by the company shall remain the property of the Government of Cuba.
As these proposed amendments seem, under the Department’s present information gathered from the conferences with Mr. Champion and corroborated by the report of the Consul General’s investigation, to obviate the principal criticisms of the measure hitherto made, their incorporation in the concession law and contract would serve to remove the Department’s objections to the project communicated to the Cuban Government at the time of the issuance of the Executive Decree of June 18, 1912.
Mr. Champion has been informed of this present position of the Department in the matter and the observation added that this attitude by the Department should not, of course, be taken or used as an endorsement by the Government of the United States of the project as a commercial enterprise.
Referring to the previous correspondence in the matter, you will address a note to the Cuban Foreign Office in the sense of the aforegoing.
I am [etc.]