711.539/7
The Minister in Portugal (Dearing) to the Secretary of State
[Received November 9.]
Sir: With reference to my despatch No. 551 of October 18, 1923,56a I have the honor to enclose to the Department herewith a copy of a letter I addressed to Doctor Mario Pinheiro Chagas on the 19th instant, and a copy of Doctor Chagas’ reply.56b
With reference to the statement made in the Columbia Law Review that Portugal had established a neutrality zone of six miles, the [Page 203] Department will note that Doctor Chagas (whom I regard as one of the best informed lawyers in Portugal) positively states that no proclamation nor declaration whatever providing for a neutrality zone of six miles was made by Portugal.
Doctor Chagas sends me, as additional information pertinent to the matter of Portuguese practice with regard to sea limits, a copy of Law No. 735, of July 10, 1917, stating in its second article that “the limits of such waters for fishing purposes is [are] determined, so far as foreign fishermen are concerned, by the limits adopted in the legislation in force in their respective countries upon the date of the promulgation of the present law.”
This law bears out the statement made in my despatch under reference that the Portuguese practice with regard to maritime limits has been based upon reciprocity.
I have [etc.]