881.00/979
The Spanish Ambassador (Riaño) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to inform Your Excellency that I communicated to the Government of His Majesty in good time the contents of the note of July 11 last,14 by which Your Excellency answered mine of May 29, 1924,15 advising Your Excellency of the ratification by the Governments of Spain, Great Britain and France of the Convention signed by said Governments on December 18, 1923, concerning the Statute of Tangier and asking, jointly with my colleagues of France and England, the Government of the United States to adhere to that Convention.
The said note of July 11, 1924 from Your Excellency has been carefully examined by the Government of His Majesty and I am in receipt of instructions from the President of the Military Directorate to present to Your Excellency the viewpoint of the said Directorate about the contents of Your Excellency’s note, which viewpoint can be summed up in the following remarks:
Regime of Free Economic Competition: Although the stipulations contained in the Spanish-Franco-English Convention relative to the Statute of Tangier on this point constitute a sufficiently full and clear guarantee of the regime of free economic competition, His Majesty’s Government would have no objection whatsoever to giving the Washington Cabinet such concrete details and explanations as it might be pleased to ask on the subject.
His Majesty’s Government is aware of the wording of the declarations and explanations furnished on the subject to the Government of the United States by that of the French Republic and fully agrees with its terms.
Personality and responsibility of the Tangier Administration: The American Government desires that the signatories to the Convention of Paris will assume full responsibility for any acts or omission on the part of the administrative authorities of the zone of the kind which under ordinary circumstances give right to international claims. The concern which seems to have prompted this demand [Page 469] may easily be dispelled in the opinion of the Military Directorate by the statement that the part taken by the American Consul in the labors of the Control Committee and the special powers of that assembly constitute a sufficient guarantee for the Government of the United States in this respect.
There should also be taken into account with respect to the point here referred to, Article 6 of the Convention of Paris, to which His Majesty’s Government is a signatory.
Administration of Justice: His Majesty’s Government is of opinion that the power implied in the provision in Article 6, Paragraph 4 of the judicial Dahir constitutes a judicial guarantee as effective for North American citizens as the right to elect their assistants from among the officials assigned to the Consulate of their country in Tangier could be.
In any event the Military Directorate, moved by a spirit of friendly conciliation, is ready to accept, and even now does accept, the phrase “public function” contained in paragraph 4 of article 1 of the judicial Dahir be interpreted to mean that it does not include the subordinate bureaucratic functions discharged by European officials assigned to the foreign Consulates in Tangier.
By virtue of this opinion His Majesty’s Government has no objection to admitting that in cases where there may be occasion to appoint an American assistant the choice may fall upon any of the subordinate officials assigned to the Consulate of the United States at Tangier provided he is an American citizen. This interpretation of the Convention shall not, however, apply to the Consular officers of career who may and do have in the Control Committee different powers and duties which are perfectly well defined in the Statute and which should not be confounded with or exercised at the same time as the administration of justice.
Régime of protection: The American Government desires that it be well understood that the provisions contained in article 13 relative to the suppression of the regime of protection exclusively referred to the city of Tangier and its Zone and that the international stipulations which govern the said regime of protection must be considered as subsisting in other parts of Morocco.
The Spanish Government, of course, would like the Government of the United States to waive, as a consequence of the United States giving up the regime of capitulations in the Tangier Zone, at the same time and voluntarily in the zone of the Spanish Protectorate, the benefits derived from the said régime which in the opinion of the Military Directorate surely does not constitute a supreme guarantee for a defense in the interests of any foreign subject residing in said zone since there are in that zone perfectly organized courts of justice officiating.
[Page 470]There is no objection, however, to declaring expressly that the stipulations of article 13 of the Spanish-Franco-English Convention of December, 1923, refer exclusively to the city of Tangier and its district, the consequence being that all that has to do with United States waiving the regime of capitulations and protection in any other zone of Morocco must be made the subject of separate negotiations.
It being the purpose and desire of His Majesty’s Government to place upon the future administration of the Tangier Zone the stamp of an international character as sincere as is possible under the Convention of Paris, it would experience genuine pleasure in being able to rely upon the American cooperation as strong and as effective as the interests of its citizens in that port may suggest and even now with the honoring and efficient cooperation of the Consular officer of the United States on the Control Committee, the working of which justifies such great hopes with regard to the maintenance of the essential principles of the Statute.
The Government which I have the honor to represent trusts that the Washington Cabinet on the strength of the considerations here presented will give its adhesion to the Convention of December 18, 1923.
I avail myself [etc.]