Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1926, Volume II

816.00/574

The Chargé in Salvador ( Engert ) to the Secretary of State

[Extract]

San Salvador , January 19, 1926 .
[Received February 23(?).]

No. 960 G

Sir: In continuation of the Legation’s despatch No. 913G of November 20, 1925,²⁹ I have the honor to transmit herewith a report on the general conditions prevailing in El Salvador for the period from November 16, 1925, to January 15, 1926.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I have [etc.]

C. Van H. Engert

[Enclosure—Extract]

Report on General Conditions Prevailing in Salvador From November 16, 1925 to January 15, 1926

During the two months under review the negotiations for a Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Rights with the Government of El Salvador have been steadily progressing and are now practically concluded.

In the latter part of November it looked for a while as if an entirely new element were to be injected into the negotiations by the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs that there be inserted in the Treaty a provision similar to Article 18 of a treaty between Germany and Mexico of December 5, 1882,³⁰ which limits diplomatic intervention to specific cases. It appears that Article 6 of an Executive Decree of April 13, 1908, which was approved by the Salvadorean National Assembly on May 7, 1908, provides that every general treaty concluded between Salvador and another country must contain such a clause. This Decree was obviously issued for the benefit of the treaty which was then being negotiated with Germany, for on the following day, April 14, 1908, the treaty was signed,³¹ but by an exchange of notes, also dated April 14, 1908, it was agreed that Article 18 of the Treaty between Mexico and Germany of 1882 would be adhered to.

The Legation discouraged from the beginning any attempt to have such a clause included in the proposed treaty with the United States and upon receipt of the Department’s telegram No. 53 of December 3, 6 p.m.,³² I told the President frankly that the Department would not accept it and that we therefore need not discuss it any further. Shortly thereafter the Minister of Foreign Affairs informed me orally that his Government would not insist upon that point, especially as the Decree of April 13, 1908, was no longer in force.

A number of minor amendments to various articles were also suggested by the Salvadorean Government, some of which the Department accepted. The most important of these were:

(a) An addition to the last paragraph of Article 7 exempting from the operation of that Article any treatment El Salvador might accord to one or more of the Central American States, so long as such treatment is not also accorded to any other country;

(b) The insertion of a clause in the first paragraph of Article 26 to the effect that salvaged merchandise shall not be exempt from payment of usual warehouse charges for storage and expenses; and

(c) Alterations in Article 19 so as to permit consular officers not nationals of the appointing state to address the authorities of the country where they are stationed for the purpose of protecting the interests of the nationals of the state by which they are appointed.

29. Not printed.
30. Treaty of friendship, commerce and navigation between Germany and Mexico, signed at Mexico, Dec. 5, 1882; ratifications exchanged at Mexico, July 26, 1883: British and Foreign State Papers, vol. lxxiii, pp. 709, 714.
31. Treaty between Germany and Salvador granting reciprocal most-favored-nation treatment in matters of commerce, etc., signed at San Salvador, Apr. 14, 1908; ratifications exchanged at Guatemala, Apr. 8, 1909; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. ci, p. 940.
32. Not printed.