File No. 881.00/582.
The French Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, June 10, 1914.
Mr. Secretary of State: My Government, to which I did not fail to forward the contents of your excellency’s notes of February 13 and April 30 last, about the doing away with the extraterritorial rights in the French Zone of Morocco and about certain claims of American citizens, has just affirmed to me that it had promptly taken steps to bring about, under the most equitable conditions, a settlement of those claims.
In regard to one of them, that of the Vacuum Oil Company, my Government, which had never heard of it, wrote to Morocco to inquire about the grievances the concern might have to state as to the customs treatment it receives. General Lautey accordingly called upon the agent of the company for explanations. The answer was “that he had not the slightest ground for complaint against the customs authorities.”
As for the other claims, the instructions sent by your excellency to the representative of the United States at Tangier, have no doubt brought to your knowledge Avith all the needful explanations the facts from which those claims may have arisen.
I beg leave in this connection to refer to the note I had the honor to address to your excellency on the 22nd ultimo [April] in which while answering the main points mentioned in your note of February 13, I laid stress on the importance attached by my Government to the Government of the United States’ earliest possible accession to the request I had laid before you. I am informed by my Government that Russia, Spain and Norway have already renounced their extraterritorial rights by signing a declaration like that enclosed in my above mentioned note. Other accessions are momentarily expected.
Be pleased [etc.]