818.6363 Am 6/75
The British Ambassador (Geddes) to the Secretary of State
Memorandum
His Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador presents his compliments to the Secretary of State and has the honour to inform him that, according to advices received by His Majesty’s Government, the Costa Rican Congress has recently rejected an agreement presented to them which would have permitted arbitration in the case of what is known as the Amory Oil Contract which, in common with the other acts of the late regimé in Costa Rica, was recently declared invalid by the Costa Rican Congress.
On the instructions of his Government, Sir Auckland Geddes ventures to enquire whether the United States Government would be prepared to associate themselves with His Majesty’s Government in demanding arbitration on the validity of this concession, which is owned by companies registered in the United States and in which British capital is interested.7
In this connection Sir Auckland Geddes is instructed to suggest that a somewhat similar case has, as the State Department are no doubt aware, recently arisen in Abyssinia where a British subject, acting on behalf of an Anglo-American oil company, has asked for the support of His Majesty’s Government in maintaining the rights obtained by a concession.
His Majesty’s Government are anxious in both these cases to act, if possible, with the co-operation of the United States Government with the view to obtaining a fair and impartial consideration of the merits of claims in which nationals of both countries are interested.
- Apparently no reply was made to this memorandum.↩