File No. 612.119/1235
The Ambassador in Mexico (
Fletcher) to the
Secretary of State
No. 889
Mexico,
April 3, 1918.
Sir: With reference to the Department’s
telegraphic instructions No. 926 of March 28, 7 p.m., and to previous
correspondence regarding the negotiations between the United States and
Mexico on the subject of commercial interchange, I have the honor to
enclose herewith a copy of my note to the Foreign Office No. 289 of
March 30, 1918, as outlined in my telegram No. 909 of March 27, 4
p.m.
I have [etc.]
[Enclosure]
The American Ambassador (
Fletcher) to
the Mexican Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
(
Aguilar)
No. 289
Mexico,
March 30, 1918.
Excellency: I have the honor to
acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note No. 269 of the
26th instant, in which your excellency, referring to my note of
March 18 last as not containing any decision regarding the
propositions outlined in the note of the Mexican Foreign Office
dated the 6th instant, asks the views of my Government with regard
to the general bases suggested by the Government of Mexico for the
maintenance of commercial intercourse between the two countries.
In reply, I have the honor to inform your excellency that my
Government accepts in principle the bases mentioned in your
excellency’s note of the 6th instant, but due to the exigencies of
the war, there are certain articles mentioned in said note which for
the time being the United States finds itself unable to export and
still other articles which can be exported only in limited and
specified quantities.
As your excellency has stated in the fourth paragraph of the note 193
of the 6th instant that “the Government of Mexico is agreeable that
temporarily [Page 624] and
transitorily quantities be fixed previously of the articles which
may not exist in abundant quantities in the United States or of
those which may be indispensable for its own requirements,” I beg to
repeat that with respect to the articles enumerated in said note, I
shall be glad to transmit to my Government any proposals or
suggestions your excellency may desire to make.
Assuring your excellency that my Government is and always has been
well disposed to come to an arrangement providing for the fullest
and freest commercial intercourse between the United States and
Mexico possible under the circumstances, I take this opportunity to
renew [etc.]
