File No. 811.5241/76
The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador
Washington, March 6, 1914.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of February 5, 1914, in which you request information as to the applicability to Porto Rico of the provisions of the treaty of 1899 between Great Britain and the United States relative to the tenure and disposition of real and personal property.
[Page 284]In reply I have the honor to inform you that the Department is of the opinion that, within the meaning and intent of Article IV of the above-named convention, the island of Porto Rico is to be regarded as territory “pertaining to or occupied and governed by the United States beyond the seas, as stated in the third clause of said article, and that consequently the convention referred to may not be considered as applying to that island until the notice contemplated by said clause has been given “by the representative of the United States of London, by direction of the treaty-making power of the United States.”
I have [etc.]