Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1921, Volume II

711.1211/45

The Secretary to President Harding ( Christian ) to the Secretary of State

Washington , May 21, 1921 .

My Dear Mr. Secretary: The President directs me to return to you herewith the proposed covenant between the United States of America and the United Mexican States and to say that the draft has his approval. He will be glad if you can expedite the movements of the representative of your Department who is to submit the proposal to the President of Mexico.

Sincerely yours,

Geo. B. Christian, Jr.

[Enclosure]

Draft Treaty of Amity and Commerce between the United States of America and Mexico

The United States of America and the United Mexican States, desiring to regulate and promote commercial intercourse between the two countries and to remove all causes of differences between them, have resolved to conclude a Treaty of Amity and Commerce for that purpose, and to that end have named as their Plenipotentiaries,

Warren G. Harding, President of the United States of America

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

and

Alvaro Obregon, President of the United Mexican states

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles:

Article I

The citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall have liberty to enter, travel and reside in the territories of the other to manage their affairs, to exercise their professions, to carry on trade, wholesale and retail, to own or lease and occupy houses, manufactories, warehouses and shops, to employ agents of their choice, to lease land for residential and commercial purposes, and generally to do anything incident to or necessary for trade upon the same terms as native citizens, submitting themselves to the laws and regulations there established.

They shall have free access to the tribunals of justice, on conforming to the laws regulating the matter, as well for the prosecution as for the defense of their rights, in all the degrees of jurisdiction established by law.

They shall not be compelled, under any pretext whatever, to pay any charges or taxes other or higher than those that are or may be paid by native citizens.

The citizens of each of the two High Contracting Parties shall receive, in the territories of the other, the most constant protection and security for their persons and property, and shall enjoy in this respect the same rights and privileges as are or may be granted to native citizens, on their submitting themselves to the conditions imposed upon the native citizens.

Property rights of whatever nature, heretofore or hereafter acquired by citizens of either country within the territories of the other, in accordance with the laws thereof, shall under no circumstances be subjected to confiscation, under constitutional provisions, legislation or executive decrees or otherwise. The right of expropriation may be resorted to only on proper grounds of public purpose, and it shall not be exercised without due process of law, nor without the prompt payment of just compensation.

Having in mind the principles stated in the present Article, and desiring clearly to define the property rights of American citizens in Mexico, corporations, companies, associations, and private individuals, including rights and interests in any company, corporation, or association, foreign or domestic, and to avoid all misunderstanding with reference thereto, the United Mexican States declare that neither the Mexican Constitution which went into effect on May 1, 1917,⁵ nor the Decree of January 6, 1915, to which the said Constitution refers, is retroactive in its operation; that neither the said Constitution nor the said decree, nor any Executive decree or administrative or military order, nor any Federal or state law heretofore or hereafter issued or enacted has or shall have any effect to cancel, destroy or impair any right, title or interest in any property, of whatever nature and wherever situated, which, prior to the coming into effect of the said Constitution and the said Decree of January 6, 1915, was owned in accordance with the laws of Mexico as then existing or declared or interpreted; and that all lands of whatever character and all rights and interest therein, and all property of whatever nature, which in accordance with the laws of Mexico as then existing, declared or interpreted, were owned by American citizens, corporations, companies, associations or private individuals, on the date of the promulgation of the said constitution, or on the date of the issuance of the said Decree of January 6, 1915, or were owned by any company, corporation or association, foreign or domestic, in which they were interested, are and shall be secured to the said owners and to any grantees or transferees thereof under grants or transfers heretofore or hereafter made, and whether or not the said grantees or transferees shall be Mexican citizens; and the United Mexican States recognize that the ownership of all substances which are described in the Code of Mines of the United Mexican States (Codigo de Minas) of 1884 and the subsequent Mexican Mining laws of 1892 and 1909, respectively, on or beneath the surface of lands in that country, are [is] vested in American citizens, corporations, companies, associations and private individuals who acquired title to such lands prior to May 1, 1917; the United Mexican States further recognize the rights of all American citizens, corporations, companies, associations and private individuals, to such substances or rights therein or with respect thereto obtained under grants or leases which they hold from the Mexican Government or Mexican citizens or from other persons who acquired ownership to such lands or rights prior to May 1, 1917; and the United Mexican States undertake:

(a) to restore to American citizens, corporations, companies, associations or private individuals, the property, rights or interests of which they may have been deprived in Mexico without just compensation since January 1, 1910;

(b) to make compensation to them for damages of [or] injuries inflicted on their property, rights or interests, including any company or association in which they are interested, as a result of such deprivation;

(c) to make adequate compensation for any such property, rights or interests of which they may have been so deprived and which it is not possible to restore.

Article II

The citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall not be disturbed, molested nor annoyed in any manner, on account of their religious belief, nor in the proper exercise of their peculiar worship, either within their own houses or in their own churches or chapels, which they shall be at liberty to build and maintain, in convenient situations, interfering in no way with, but respecting the religion and customs of the country in which they reside.

Citizens of the United States in Mexico shall have and enjoy the rights to engage in religious worship and all other matters appertaining to religion and education, as citizens of Mexico enjoy in the United States.

Article III

The dwellings, warehouses, manufactories and shops of the citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties in the territories of the other, and all premises appertaining thereto used for purposes of residence or commerce, shall be respected. It shall not be allowable to proceed to make a domiciliary visit to, or a search of, any such buildings and premises, or to examine or inspect books, papers or accounts, except under the conditions and with the forms prescribed by the laws, ordinances and regulations for nationals.

Article IV

There shall be between the territories of the two High Contracting Parties reciprocal freedom of commerce and navigation. The citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties, equally with the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation, shall have liberty freely to come with their ships and cargoes to all places, ports and rivers, in the territories of the other which are or may be opened to foreign commerce.

Article V

No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the territories of either of the two High Contracting Parties of any article of the growth, produce or manufacture of the territories of the Contracting Parties, than are, or shall be, payable on the like article of any other foreign country; nor shall any other or higher duties or charges be imposed in the territories of either of the Contracting Parties on the exportation of any article to the territories of the other than such as are, or shall be, payable on the exportation of the like article to any other foreign country; nor shall any prohibition be imposed upon the importation or exportation of any article of the growth, produce or manufacture of the territories of either of the Contracting Parties to or from the territories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the like article of any other foreign country.

The last prohibition is not, however, applicable to prohibitions or restrictions maintained or imposed as sanitary measures or for purposes of protecting animals and useful plants.

Article VI

The citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other exemption from all transit duties and a perfect equality of treatment in all that relates to warehousing, bounties, facilities and drawbacks.

Article VII

Merchant vessels navigating under the flag of the United States or that of Mexico and carrying the papers required by their national laws to prove their nationality shall in Mexico and in the United States be deemed to be vessels of the United States or of Mexico, respectively.

Article VIII

No duties of tonnage, harbor, pilotage, lighthouse, quarantine, or other similar or corresponding duties of whatever denomination, levied in the name or for the profit of Government, public functionaries, private individuals, corporations or establishments of any kind shall be imposed in the ports of the territories of either country upon the vessels of the other, which shall not equally, under the same conditions, be imposed on national vessels in general, or on vessels of the most favored nation. Such equality of treatment shall apply reciprocally to the respective vessels from whatever place they may arrive and whatever may be their place of destination.

Article IX

The coasting trade of the High Contracting Parties is excepted from the provisions of the present Treaty and shall be regulated according to the laws of the United States and Mexico, respectively. It is, however, understood that the citizens of either Contracting Party shall enjoy in this respect most-favored-nation treatment in the territories of the other.

A vessel of one of the Contracting Parties, laden in a foreign country with cargo destined for two or more ports of entry in the territories of the other, may discharge a portion of her cargo at one of the said ports, and, continuing her voyage to the other port or ports of destination, there discharge the remainder of her cargo, subject always to the laws, tariffs and customs regulations of the country of destination; and, in like manner and under the same reservation, the vessels of one of the Contracting Parties shall be permitted to load at several ports of the other for the same outward voyages.

Article X

Except as otherwise expressly provided in this Treaty, the High Contracting Parties agree that, in all that concerns commerce and navigation, any privilege, favor or immunity which either Contracting Party has actually granted, or may hereafter grant, to the citizens of any other State shall be extended to the citizens of the other Contracting Party gratuitously, if the concession in favor of that other State shall have been gratuitous, and on the same or equivalent conditions, if the concession shall have been conditional.

Article XI

Each of the High Contracting Parties may appoint consuls general, consuls, vice consuls, and other consular officers or agents to reside in the towns and ports of the territories and possessions of the other where similar officers of other powers are permitted to reside.

Such consular officers and agents, however, shall not enter upon their functions until they shall have been approved and admitted by the Government to which they are sent.

They shall be entitled to exercise all the powers and enjoy all the honors, privileges, exemptions, and immunities of every kind which are, or may be, accorded to consular officers of the most favored nation.

Article XII

In case of the death of any citizen of Mexico in the United States or of any citizen of the United States in Mexico without having in the country of his decease any known heirs or testamentary executors by him appointed, the competent local authorities shall at once inform the nearest consular officer of the nation to which the deceased belonged, in order that the necessary information may be immediately forwarded to parties interested.

In the event of any citizens of either of the High Contracting Parties dying without will or testament, in the territory of the other contracting party, the consul general, consul, vice consul, or other consular officer or agent of the nation to which the deceased belonged, or, in his absence, the representative of such consul general, consul, vice consul, or other consular officer or agent shall, so far as the laws of each country will permit and pending the appointment of an administrator and until letters of administration have been granted, take charge of the personal property left by the deceased for the benefit of his lawful heirs and creditors.

Article XIII

The citizens of each of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy in the territories of the other the same protection as native citizens in regard to patents, trade-marks and designs, upon fulfillment of the formalities prescribed by law.

Article XIV

The United Mexican States recognize their pecuniary responsibility for all damage arising from death of, or injuries to persons, or damage to, or destruction of, property, of American citizens, corporations, companies, associations or private individuals, when such damages were occasioned by the acts of representatives of the United Mexican States or by acts of persons engaged in brigandage or in insurrection or revolution against the Mexican Government.

The High Contracting Parties undertake to conclude, within six months from the date of signature of the present treaty, a convention for the settlement of all claims, on the one hand, of corporations, companies or private individuals, citizens of the United States, for pecuniary loss or damage, including loss or damage resulting from injuries to any company or association, foreign or domestic, in which they are or have been interested, against the United Mexican States, and, on the other hand, of all claims or [of] corporations, companies or private individuals, citizens of Mexico, for pecuniary loss or damage, including loss or damage resulting from injuries to any company or association in which they are interested, against the United States.

Article XV

The High Contracting Parties undertake to conclude within six months from the date of signature of the present Treaty a further convention for the adjustment of the differences which have arisen between them as to the international title to the so-called Chamizal tract which was the subject of the Convention of June 24, 1910, and the supplemental Protocol of December 5, 1910.⁶ For this purpose they will resume negotiations at the precise point where they were interrupted in the month of March, 1913.⁷

Article XVI

The High Contracting Parties agree that within six months after the exchange of ratifications of the present treaty they will appoint a Commission to be composed of one commissioner designated by each party which shall forthwith proceed to study questions relating to the equitable distribution of the boundary waters. This Commission shall, within one year after its organization, submit to the respective governments a report with recommendations which shall serve as the basis for future negotiations on that subject.

Each government will bear the expense of the commissioner designated by it.

Article XVII

The present Treaty shall remain in force for the term of six years from the date of the exchange of ratifications, and if six months before the expiration of that period neither party shall have notified the other of its intention of reforming any of, or all, the Articles of the Treaty, or of arresting the operation of the Treaty, it shall remain binding beyond that time until six months from the time that one of the Parties notifies the other of its intention of proceeding to reform it or to terminate it; provided, however, that the termination of this treaty as hereinbefore provided, shall not affect any property rights recognized by this Treaty, or which may have been acquired prior to such termination.

Article XVIII

The present Treaty shall be ratified by the High Contracting Parties in accordance with their respective constitutions. The ratifications of this Treaty shall be exchanged in Washington as soon as practicable, and it shall take effect on the date of the exchange of the ratifications.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed this Treaty and have hereunto affixed their seals.

Done in duplicate in , this day of , 1921.

5. Foreign Relations, 1917, p. 951.
6. Foreign Relations, 1911, pp. 565 and 569, respectively.
7. See ibid., 1913, pp. 957–977.