711.142/5
The Secretary of State to the Guatemalan Minister (Latour)
Sir: Referring to your note of August 27, 1926, informing this Government that your Government will be glad to enter into negotiations for a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with this Government, and requesting that a draft of the treaty be sent to you so that it may be submitted to your Government, I have the honor to send you herewith two copies of the draft of such a treaty.3
This Government reciprocates the spirit of cordiality with which your Government views the negotiation of the Treaty. The provisions of the draft are designed to promote friendly as well as commercial intercourse between the peoples of the United States and Guatemala. An attempt has been made to express the several Articles in terms which definitely and clearly set forth the principles involved. By this means it is sought to avoid as far as possible danger of conflicting interpretations.
Article VII makes full provision for the enjoyment of the most favored nation clause in its unconditional form, as applied to persons, vessels and cargoes, and to articles which are the growth, produce or manufacture of the United States or of Guatemala. It will be seen that the most favored nation clause is applied to duties on imports and exports and to other charges, restrictions and prohibitions on goods imported and exported. The provisions of the Convention [Page 395] relating to the Tenure and Disposition of Real and Personal Property signed by the United States and Guatemala on August 27, 1901,4 are reproduced with certain amplifications in Articles IV and XXII of the draft and it is provided by Article XXVIII that the Convention of 1901 will be supplanted from the date of the exchange of ratifications of the proposed treaty. This Government is hopeful that this proposal will meet with the approval of your Government.
Your Government will of course understand that this Government reserves the right to suggest minor changes in the draft in the course of the negotiations.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed; the draft submitted to Guatemala was substantially the same as the one enclosed in instruction No. 189, Aug. 6, 1925, to the Chargé in Salvador, p. 931.↩
- Foreign Relations, 1902, p. 584.↩