Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918

File No. 412.00/72

The Chargé in Mexico ( Summerlin) to the Secretary of State

No. 1492

Mexico, October 9, 1918.

Sir: With reference to Embassy despatch No. 710 of January 15, 1918, transmitting the text and translation of the decree of the Mexican Government creating the claims commission [regulations for the law creating the claims commission], I have the honor to transmit, herewith, the text of a new decree, dated October 1, 1918, which replaces and cancels the former one of December 24, 1917.

The changes in the first 30 articles of the new decree are only in the wording and with respect to the interior organization and management of the commission. Articles 31 and 32 and the transitory article are new and authorize the commission to secure information and data relative to claims from any federal, state, or municipal office; to appoint experts; and to pay certain salaries to the members and employees of the commission, to be charged to “extraordinary expenditures”, for the remainder of the present fiscal year.

I have [etc.]

George T. Summerlin

[Enclosure—Translation]

Decree amending that of December 24, 1917, concerning regulations for the application of the law which created the claims commission¹

I, Venustiano Carranza, Constitutional President of the United Mexican States to the people thereof, make known:

That in the exercise of the constitutional powers of the Executive and in accordance with the provisions of the law of November 24, 1917, I have seen fit to revise the regulations of December 24 of that year as follows:

regulations for the law which created the claims commission

• Article 1. The Office of the claims commission shall be installed at such a place as may be designated by the Secretary of the Treasury and shall be open to the public every working day and during the same hours in which the other branches of that Department are operating.
• Art. 2. The offices of the commission shall have the following staff of employees, a secretary, chief clerk, a chief, five stenographer-typewriters, three clerks, a janitor, and a messenger. The commission upon consultation with the Department of the Treasury may make changes in this personnel as the work of the office may demand.
• Art. 3. The president and voting members of the commission and also the subordinate employees shall receive the salary appropriated for them in the respective estimates.
• Art. 4. The office of the commission shall be under the direct orders of the secretary who shall, in accord with the president, decide all matters relative to internal organization that are not specified in these regulations.
• Art. 5. As a rule the commission shall meet to discharge its duties not less than three times a week but by order of its president it may have extraordinary sessions whenever required for the speedier and more efficient dispatch of its business.
• Art. 6. The commission shall not hold a meeting without having at least three of its members and the secretary in attendance. In the occasional absence of the president the senior voting members of those present shall act in his place. The chief clerk shall act for the secretary when necessary.
• Art. 7. The awards of the commission shall be rendered by a majority of the votes of the commissioners present. In case of a tie the vote of the president or the acting president shall decide. The commissioners who disagree with the majority shall make a written statement of their opinion stating the grounds upon which it is based.
• Art. 8. The examination of the cases from the moment when a claim is filed until a decision is ready shall be conducted by an order issued by each commissioner in the cases within his jurisdiction and carried out through the Department. The orders of the commissioners may be revoked by the commission.
• Art. 9. The secretary shall give to the claimants or their attorneys notice of the decisions of the commission and of the action of which they must have knowledge through official letters mailed to the address given to him.
• Art. 10. The requirements of form which must be met by the claims in order to be entertained by the commission shall be as follows:

  I. They must be presented in writing and in Spanish.

  II. They must be accompanied by all the necessary vouchers and proof to demonstrate that the injury was really done and in support of the amount claimed on that account.

  III. The name or firm name, nationality and domicile of the claimant must be stated.

  IV. In cases where the claimants do not conduct their own cases in person, the attorney whom they may appoint to be duly accredited and his domicile must be stated.

  If the amount claimed be less than $5,000 the character of attorney must be accredited by means of a power of attorney signed by the principal and ratified before the municipal president of the place where it is issued; if the claim should amount to $5,000 or more the character of attorney must be accredited by means of a legal power of attorney executed before a notary.

  V. The places and dates where and on which the facts occurred, from which the claim arises, must be stated with the greatest possible precision, as well as the names of the persons who have had any part therein, and also the nature of the damage.

  VI. The amount in national gold claimed by the claimant as indemnity must be expressed.

• Art. 11. Under the responsibility and direct supervision of the secretary, the chief shall keep in person a book in which the claim shall be entered and in which shall be noted all those that may be received stating with clearness and in separate columns the day and hour when it was filed, the name or firm name of the claimant, his domicile and nationality, the name and domicile of the attorney when the claimant does not conduct his case in person, the amount of the claim, the nature of the facts upon which the claim is based, the date on which they occurred, and the place in the Republic where they occurred and also the name of the commissioner to whom the case is turned over for examination. In a separate column a note shall be made at the proper time of the purport of the award of the commission.
• Art. 12. The same chief referred to in the preceding article shall keep, under the supervision of the secretary, a special book for the entry of foreign claims entitled to that character. In the said book shall be noted, grouped by nationalities, the name of the claimant and his attorney, if any, and the amount of the claim, and in a special column a note should be made at the proper time briefly stating the award of the commission and also whether the claimant availed himself of the right accorded to him by Article 13 of the law of November 14, 1917.
• This record shall be kept without prejudice to that which must be kept of all the claims in the book referred to in the previous article.
• Art. 13. The secretary shall keep in person under the supervision of the president two books, one in which shall be noted the names of the commissioners put in charge of every case with the note of the number of that case and the name of the claimant, and the other in which shall be noted the names of the commissioners and of the proceedings and decisions that the said commissioners may make in their respective cases until they shall have reached the stage of an award.
• Art. 14. Under the supervision of the secretary, the chief clerk shall draw up general statistics including all the claims that have been denied or approved from 1910 to 1917, it being understood that the statistics shall be made in accordance with the instructions given to that effect by the president of the commission.
• In addition there may be kept in the secretary’s office such additional books as may be ordered by the president if deemed by him necessary to expedite the business.
• Art. 15. Proceedings shall begin on the claims in the strict order of their presentation. To that effect as soon as the secretary shall receive a claim he shall look into it and if he finds that it meets all the requirements enumerated in Article 10 of these rules and regulations he shall order it to be entered in the books where it belongs; if not, he shall tell the claimant or the person who may present the claim the defects in form that have been discovered in order that it may again be recorded after these defects shall have been removed.
• Art. 16. The secretary’s office after registering a claim and getting up the dossier thereof shall report it to the president who shall appoint the commissioner who is to take it in charge, said appointment being made strictly by naming one member of the commission after another in their alphabetical order.
• Art. 17. The commissioner shall take up the study and conduct of the case, but immediately upon his finding that it does not meet the requirements stated in Articles 5, 6 and 7 of the law, he shall report to the commission and move that the claim be rejected at once.
• Art. 18. The claim having been admitted, applications should be made without delay to the authorities concerned for all the information that may be deemed necessary to pass upon its validity or invalidity and to fix with proper accuracy the amount that should be paid by way of indemnity. In the same order in which the said information is called for, a term shall be notified to the claimant in which to submit the evidence that he may deem proper; the length of that term, which shall not exceed four months, shall be fixed according to the distance, the difficulty of communications and the character of the evidence.
• Art. 19. The claimants may submit every kind of evidence, but the commission shall always receive it in a documentary form whenever, as in the case of declaration of witnesses, reports of experts, and other matter of the same kind, it is necessary for them to be submitted voluntarily before the judges competent to receive them, a certified copy of the proceedings being delivered to the commission.
• Art. 20. The evidence having been presented and the information received as stated in the foregoing article, the record of the case shall be made accessible to the claimant for a term of ten days in which to offer such allegation in writing as he may deem pertinent.
• Art. 21. At the expiration of the term above referred to, the commissioner in charge of the case shall submit to the commission in writing a draft of the decision as to the merits of the case, stating therein the amount which should be paid, if any.
• Art. 22. The commission, with the records of the case and the report of the commissioner in charge thereof before it, shall discuss and vote upon the claim and draw the advisory decision, which shall conclude with a concrete proposition as to the validity or invalidity of the claim and the amount of the indemnity which is to be paid to the claimant, with a statement of the reasons which have been taken into consideration in reaching it. The said decision shall be notified to the claimant or his attorney by an official note sent to the domicile designated by himself, and shall fix a term which shall not exceed one month, within which the claimants may state in writing whether or not they agree to the decision so notified to them.
• Art. 23. At the expiration of the term referred to in the foregoing article the commission shall deliver the record of the case to the Department of the Treasury in order that it may be transmitted to the citizen President of the Republic for his final decision save in the case of foreigners who may have declared their non-agreement with the advisory decision of the commission, when the procedure shall be that stated in Article 25 and following.
• Art. 24. For the purposes of the final part of Article 7 of the law of November 24 of last year, the records of cases arising from the revolution of 1910 and in which, although the opinion of the advisory commission may have been presented, the final decision shall not have been reached by the Secretary of Finance, shall be through that Department referred to the citizen President of the Republic in order that the final decision may be given by him.
• Art. 25. For the purposes of Article 11 of the law of November 24, 1917, the only proof of alienage that may be admitted shall be: a passport visaed by the embassy, legation or consulate of that country, the letters of naturalization in the case of naturalization or the certificate of registration in the case of individuals, and the evidence duly registered of the recording of the documents referred to in Article 24 of the commercial code in the case of companies.
• Art. 26. Foreign claimants who should decline to accept the opinion of the commission and do not choose to take the diplomatic channel to formulate their objections shall apply in writing to the same commission within the term referred to in Article 22 and express their desire to refer their claim to the proper arbitral commission.
• Art. 27. The claims commission, before concluding its labors, shall deliver to the Department of the Treasury a list of the foreign claimants whose cases come under the previous article.
• Art. 28. The Department of the Treasury shall immediately transmit that list to the Department of Foreign Relations in order that it may, with the data before it furnished by the foreign diplomatic officers, prepare a general list of the claims that will have to be submitted to the decision of the arbitral commissions.
• Art. 29. As soon as the general list of claims referred to in the foregoing article shall have been finally made up, the Department of Foreign Relations will proceed, in accordance with the foreign diplomatic officers, to determine the form and time limits in which the arbitral commissions will have to be organized and to lay down the rules of procedure for the guidance of the said commissions with the understanding that the said bases can in no case conflict with the provisions of Articles 5, 6, 7 and 8 of the law of the 24th of November of this [sic] year.
• Art. 30. The Department of the Treasury will forward in due course to that of Foreign Relations all the records relative to foreign claims which are to be passed upon by the arbitral commissions in order that the said commissions may have them before them in examining the respective cases.
• Art. 31. The commission may apply directly or by letters signed by the president and the secretary to all the public offices of the Federation, of the States and municipalities, and also the chiefs of the national army, for such information, data and copies of documents as they may need to prove and throw light on the claim, which information must be furnished with the least possible delay.
• They may also apply for the assistance of such experts as the public offices may furnish for expert opinions and give instructions to the state attorney and his agents assigned to the district courts or to any person whatever who may discharge duties in the cases which are brought before those courts or before the ordinary State or Federal courts for the purpose of establishing the validity of claims.
• Art. 32. After consulting the Department of the Treasury, the commission may appoint, temporarily or permanently, experts and commercial investigating agents to clarify the points at issue, whose salary or compensation is to be determined upon consultation with the same Department.

Transitory Article

During the time still to run before the end of the present fiscal year the president and voting members of the commission, as well as the subordinate employees of the same, shall receive the salary granted them by the Executive through the Department of the Treasury and charged to the account of “extraordinary expenses” of the said Department.

I, therefore, order that this be printed, published, circulated and duly complied with.

Given at the Palace of the Executive Power of the Union in Mexico, on the first day of October, one thousand nine hundred and eighteen.

V. Carranza

[rubric]

1. Diario Oficial, October 7, 1918.