881.00/976
The French Ambassador (Jusserand) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary of State: My Government has considered very carefully and with the most sincere wish of arriving at a final understanding, as to the Statute of Tangier, with that of the United States the remarks contained in Your Excellency’s note of July 11 last.13 That note made known the conditions under which the adhesion of the United States, so earnestly desired by us and the other principal Powers concerned, could be secured. Reverting to those various points, I have the honor, by order of my Government, to submit to Your Excellency the following remarks and explanations:
1st. (a) In all questions relating to customs duties and tonnage dues, warehouse dues, harbor dues, and other dues, no matter which, having to do with industry or commerce, no discrimination is contemplated, which will or can in law or in fact place the nationals, products or vessels of a country at a disadvantage as compared with the nationals, products or vessels of another country.
(b) With regard to the right to acquire and hold property, office seeking, practicing of professions, industrial activities and facilities of various kinds, no discrimination shall be set up.
(c) In the concessions of all kinds, as well as in the awarding of contracts for public works and the purchase of supplies all will be allowed to compete on equal terms and submit proposals without setting up any conditions or provisions likely to secure to competitors of any one nationality any advantage over those of another.
(d) No monopoly or exclusive privilege shall be created or granted so as to bring about any monopolizing of the markets, resources or facilities of the Tangier zone for the advantage of any special interests, directly or indirectly, or that would lead either to any exclusion or preferential treatment inconsistent with the principle of full equality of opportunity.
The foregoing, of course, cannot affect the provisions of Articles 8 and 9 of the Convention of Paris of December 18, last, relative to the Statute of Tangier. These Articles specify that in accordance with No. 141 and the following Articles of the Treaty of Versailles, the provisions of the said Statute cannot be claimed by the German, Austrian and Hungarian nationals.
2nd. The American Government asked that the signatories of the convention should undertake to assume full responsibility for all acts or omissions of the executive authorities of the zone which would usually give birth to an international claim.
The Government of the United States will kindly remember in this connection that under Article 5 of the said Convention the Delegation given by the Sultan on the Tangier zone is permanent and general “except in diplomatic matters for which the provisions of Article 5 of the Protectorate Treaty of March 30, 1912, stand”.
[Page 467]Now this Article 5 of the Protectorate Treaty provides “that the Resident Commissioner General is the only intermediary of the Sultan with the foreign representatives and in the relations maintained by said representatives with the Shereefian Government. He has in particular charge of all questions concerning aliens in Morocco.”
The signatories to the Tangier Convention have thus confirmed in diplomatic matters and for that zone the formal rights of France, the power which protects Morocco, and as a consequence the responsibility of France in such matters.
The above mentioned reservation in Article 5 of the Convention relative to the Statute is, furthermore reproduced in Article I, Second subsection of the draft of Dahir organizing the administration of the zone which confirms the general and permanent delegation given by the Sultan of the zone “does not apply to diplomatic matters in regard to which the provisions of Article 5 of the Treaty of March 30, 1912 are fully observed;”
(3) With regard to the administration of justice, the American Government would like to be at liberty to select from the staff of the American Consulate at Tangier the associate judge or judges who are to sit in all cases in which an American citizen is concerned.
By reason of the widely accepted principle of the separation of the Powers it does not seem possible to gratify that wish in the manner in which it is expressed. Acting upon the said principle, Article I of the Dahir concerning the organization of international justice at Tangier provides that unsalaried associate members of the court are free to engage in an occupation or profession “but not in public office”. It is not easily seen how this provision could reasonably be contravened.
If, however, the United States Government understood the phrase “staff of the Consulate” to mean the auxiliary members, exclusive of the career officials, the text might be interpreted so as to satisfy your Excellency, with the understanding that the associate judges so selected should be American citizens. This last reservation may be deemed unnecessary since Article I of the above mentioned Dahir provides that the associate members are “subjects or citizens of every one of the Powers signatory to the Act of Algeciras” and it so happens that the staff of the diplomatic agency of the United States now includes employes who are not Americans but belong to the Syrian or Moorish nationality.
4th. My Government is in position to give Your Excellency the assurance that there was no question of making any change whatsoever in the existing rights with regard to the protégés in other parts of Morocco through the provisions in Article 13 of the Convention.
5th. It is expressly understood with regard to the extension to the zone of Tangier of the international agreements that may hereafter be made by his Shereefian Majesty with other powers that no agreement of that character shall be considered as restricting the rights of American citizens without the consent of their Government.
I am instructed to express in submitting the foregoing to Your Excellency for your benevolent consideration the wish that you would find sufficient grounds therein to agree to give your adhesion [Page 468] to the Statute of Tangier which, as you know, we all earnestly desire and which would powerfully contribute to developing the region in the interest of all.
Be pleased [etc.]