File No. 312.11/7766
The Acting Secretary of State to Consul Dawson
Washington, July 7, 1916.
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch number 22, of May 27, 1916,3 with which you enclose a copy of a memorial, dated at Tampico, May 22, 1916, addressed to the President of the United States, by a number of American citizens residing at Tampico and its vicinity, relative to certain Mexican decrees affecting property rights, the arrest of an American citizen, named Charles J. Nibbi, et cetera.
You are instructed to deliver the following response to the American citizens who signed the memorial in question:
Inasmuch as the matter of the arrest of Mr. Nibbi, which constitutes a large part of the memorial, has been adjusted by the release of Mr. Nibbi, it appears unnecessary to give further consideration to this matter.
In view of the present condition of the relations between the United States and the Mexican Governments the Department does not deem this to be an opportune time to take up with the de facto Government of Mexico the question of the decrees prohibiting the transfer of land or of leases to foreigners. The Department understands that the de facto Government asserts that these decrees are intended to be temporary in their nature and to avoid the passing of large interests in Mexico into the hands of foreigners during the present disturbed conditions which tend to make owners of property willing to sell for low figures.
It is noted that the memorialists refer to the violation, by the decrees, of the rights of American citizens guaranteed by treaty between the United States and Mexico. On this point it may be said that the Department is not aware of any treaty provisions which bear upon the questions involved in these decrees but will be glad to be referred by the interested American citizens to such treaty provisions as they may have in mind. In the absence of such provisions, this Government would not be justified in upholding the memorialists in their expressed intention not to obey the requirements of the decrees referred to.
I am [etc.]
- Not printed.↩