812.6363/1225
The Secretary of State to the Chargé in Mexico (Summerlin)
Sir: I am in receipt of your despatch No. 6420 of October 12, 1922, enclosing the text and translation of a draft of a Petroleum Bill and reporting in this connection that on the 10th of October, in a private conversation with you, Mr. Pani had stated that the Department’s [Page 707] observations or comment on the draft might be helpful to the Mexican authorities. I have also noted your personal communication to the Chief of the Division of Mexican Affairs, dated October 19th,56 reporting that Mr. Pani informed you on the night of the 18th of October, that “they would welcome ‘honest criticism’ of the proposed Law.”
In reply I enclose a translation of a communication dated November 22, from Mr. Manuel C. Téllez, the Mexican representative at this capital, together with a translation of a statement which Mr. Pani gave to the press on the 21st instant in which he asserts that the Mexican Foreign Office “neither furnished the petroleum bill of which it had no knowledge nor much less asked the Department of State at Washington for comments of any kind thereon.”57
You are instructed to advise Mr. Pani, orally, that you have no desire to continue the discussion of this incident which you are pleased to note he considers as closed but that, for a clear understanding of the attitude of your Government in the matter as outlined in the official statement which the Department gave the press on November 18,58 a copy of which you furnished to the Mexican Foreign Office, it seems necessary for you to invite his attention to the fact that you advised the Department that your understanding of his conversation with you on October 10 and again on October 18 last was to the effect that he said that the Department’s observations or comment on the draft might be helpful to the Mexican authorities and that they would welcome honest criticism of the proposed measure.
I am [etc.]