[Enclosure]
The American Minister (Mooney) to the Paraguayan Minister of Foreign Affairs
(Lara
Castro)
Asuncion, December 26,
1919.
[No. 211]
Excellency: By virtue of a specific
instruction of my Government I have the honor to invite the
attention of Your Excellency to the following:
The Paraguayan Congress by its act No. 159, duly passed, and
promulgated on October 18, 1915, granted to the Construction and
[Page 340]
Engineering Finance
Company, of New York, a concession to construct and operate a port
at the city of Asunción. The instrument of concession, framed in
harmony with the law authorizing the same, stipulated the time at
which the work on the port was to be commenced, the time at which
stated progress was to be made thereon, and the time at which the
same was to be fully completed, wherein, it is admitted, the
concessionaire made ostensible default.
However, as an excuse for this apparent default and as a reason why
its commission, involuntary on the part of the concessionaire,
should not, until now, have the effect of vitiating the contract,
the attention of Your Excellency is called to the fact that the
seeming laches were concurrent with the World’s war, in which
America did not intervene until after the grant of the concession,
when it was impossible, by reason of restrictions on the export of
capital, to provide finances for the enterprise, and was alike
impossible to secure the proper and necessary material for the work,
or even to secure the transportation of such material if obtained.
In view of these unfor[e]seen causes, which were wholly beyond the
control of the concessionaire, and which could not be foreseen by
the exercise of due care and diligence, it is suggested that the
performance of the contract obligations was prevented by the act of
God, (force majeure), and by no fault of the
obligor.
I am also instructed to make known to Your Excellency that the
concessionaire has now arranged for the capital adequate for this
enterprise, and is otherwise prepared to make an early start on the
construction of the port and carry the same to a prompt conclusion,
if permitted by the Paraguayan Government so to do.
Because of all of the foregoing I am further instructed to bring this
whole matter to the attention of His Excellency the President of
Paraguay, through the intermediary of Your Excellency, with a view
to securing an annullment of the forfeiture of this concession, if
any such forfeiture has been decreed, that the franchise be
revivified, and that the concessionaire be now allowed a reasonably
sufficient length of time to build the port.
Accept [etc.]
