[Enclosure—Translation99]
The Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs
(Sáenz)
to the American Ambassador (Sheffield)
Mexico, July 10,
1926.
No. 8959
Mr. Ambassador: I have noted Your
Excellency’s courteous note No. 1319 of June 14, last,1
in which and in connection with my recent note of May 28, you state
that an agreement between the two Governments for rectifying the
entire channel of the Rio Grande and for determining in advance the
sovereignty over lands to be segregated, would necessitate much
preliminary work involving a delay prejudicial to the project
approved by the International Boundary Commission
[Page 710]
for averting floods in the vicinity of
El Paso and Juarez; but that the Government of the United States,
being disposed to listen to any proposal tending to the settlement
of the other issues involved, asks if my Government is willing to
approve Minute No. 61, in which case instructions will be issued to
the American Boundary Commissioner to proceed to dispose of the
pending banco cases.
In reply, I beg leave to state to Your Excellency that I agree with
you, that the completion of the rectification plan for the entire
Rio Grande channel, determining in advance the location of the
cut-offs and the sovereignty of the lands segregated, would delay
the works, the urgent necessity of which I realize.
My Government, in note No. 11089 of August 18, 1925,2 desirous
of avoiding the creation of new difficulties before the settlement
of pending cases, decided, without rejecting them, to postpone the
carrying out of the recommendations contained in Minute No. 61, but
subsequently waived, in view of the urgency of the case, in note No.
6416 of May 28 of the present year, all the pending questions
relating thereto. However, in the recommendations of said Minute,
even in connection with cut-offs for a distance of eight miles below
El Paso and Juarez and the stipulation that the jurisdiction over
lands segregated should continue the same as prior to the
segregation, it was not borne in mind that the proposed works would
cut lands on which bancos have formed and that the carrying out of
such works would completely obliterate traces of abandoned channels
and the exact location of these presumptive bancos, which would
justify a previous survey and delimitation thereof before
obliterating these natural marks or traces.
However, since maps of the presumptive bancos of the valley of El
Paso have been completed and presented to the International Boundary
Commission, I take pleasure in stating that my Government is
disposed to carry out the recommendations of said Minute No. 61,
counting on the promise of Your Excellency’s Government contained in
the note under acknowledgment, to discuss the elimination of the
bancos mentioned, thus ending the delay which the Government of the
United States has continued with regard to this matter since
1911.
I should add that the willingness of my Government to carry out the
recommendations of Minute No. 61 is based on the understanding that
efforts will be made to carry out, within the shortest time
possible, the general plan for the rectification of the Rio Grande
channel from El Paso to Fort Quitman, upon the basis, in general
terms, of superficial compensation, stipulating in a special
convention the exchange of nationality of these parcels according to
a standard similar to that adopted for the elimination of
bancos.
1 avail myself [etc.]
