812.512/2307

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

No. 1842

Sir: I have the honor to report that the Treasury Department issued a circular dated February 18 [19], 1919, published by the press today, the substance of which is as follows:

[“]In conformity with Article Six of the Law of July 31, 1918 on petroleum lands and contracts this Department has decided that [the] royalty tax referred to in Articles Three, Four and Five of the said Law, Forty-seven and Three of the Decrees of the eighth and twelfth of August, last,71 respectively, corresponding to bimestre of January and February, shall be paid in cash by taxpayers at the corresponding tax office, in conformity with Circular No. 49 of October 1, last,72 on the understanding that if the royalty is specified in kind in the respective contracts same shall be valued as provided in Article 11 of the Law of July thirty-first for payment in cash as follows:

Oil of density 0.91—per ton 15.00 pesos
(Decreasing 20 centavos for every 1/100 increase in density: and increasing 40 centavos for every 1/100 decrease in density. Includes oil of 0.97 density.)
Oil of density greater than 0.97—per ton 6.00

Reduction for pipe-line transportation cost on basis of two centavos per ton-kilometer.”

I have [etc.]

George T. Summerlin
  1. Foreign Relations, 1918, pp. 759 and 766, respectively.
  2. Not printed.