File No. 811.5241/80a
The Secretary of State to Chargé Laughlin
Washington, August 31, 1916.
Sir: Paragraph 3 of Article IV of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain relative to the tenure and disposition of real and personal property, signed at Washington on March 2, 1899, stipulates as follows:
The provisions of this Convention shall extend and apply to any territory or territories pertaining to or occupied and governed by the United States beyond the seas, only upon notice to that effect being given by the Representative of the United States at London, by direction of the treaty-making power of the United States.
The Senate, by a resolution adopted on August 29, 1916, having advised and consented to notice being given by the President to the American Ambassador at London
that the provisions of said Convention are, by direction of the treaty-making power of the United States, extended and applied to the Island of Porto Rico,
you are instructed to address Viscount Grey a note as follows:
By direction of the treaty-making power of the United States, the undersigned Chargé d’Affaires of the United States of America has the honor, in conformity with paragraph 3 of Article IV of the Convention between the United States and Great Britain relating to the tenure and disposition of real and personal property, signed at Washington on March 2, 1899, hereby to give formal notice to His Britannic Majesty’s Government that the provisions of the said Convention are from this date extended and applied to the Island of Porto Rico.
You will advise the Department by cable of the date of the notification.
I am [etc.]