Office of the Historian

Treaty Series No. 827

Protocol of Exchange39

The undersigned Plenipotentiaries met this day for the purpose of exchanging the ratifications of the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Consular Eights between the United States of America and the Republic of El Salvador, signed at San Salvador on February 22, 1926.

Before proceeding to the exchange, the Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the United States of America, being duly authorized thereto by his Government, hereby declares that it is the understanding of the Government of the United States of America that the rights of commerce and navigation accorded in respect of vessels by Article VII of the said treaty apply to merchant vessels and to none others, and that the authority granted in the second sentence of Article XX to the consular officers of either country in the other to draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, deeds and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen and also contracts to which a countryman is a party is solely in order that such instruments may be effective in the territory of the State by which such consular officers have been appointed.

These understandings being in accordance with the modifications in the form of the treaty set forth in Legislative Decree of June 30, 1927, of the National Legislative Assembly of El Salvador,40 the exchange [Page 955] of ratifications of the said treaty took place in the usual manner.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Protocol of Exchange and have affixed thereto their seals.

Done at San Salvador this fifth day of September, one thousand nine hundred and thirty.

[seal]
W. W. Schott

[seal]
J. Martínez Suárez
  1. This protocol of exchange was signed in English and Spanish by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Salvador at the time of the exchange of ratifications of the treaty of friendship, commerce and consular rights.↩

  2. Reading in part in translation:

    “The National Legislative Assembly of the Republic of Salvador,

    . . . . . . . .

    “Decrees:

    “Sole Article. The Legislative decree of May 31, 1926 hitherto referred to is reconsidered; and the Treaty alluded to is ratified in the form in which it was signed by the High Contracting Parties, with the following modifications only:

    • “(a) The first paragraph of Article VII, the clause which says: ‘The nationals of each of the High Contracting Parties equally with those of the most favored nation, shall have liberty freely to come with their vessels and cargoes to all places, ports and waters of every kind within the territorial limits of the other which are or may be open to foreign commerce and navigation’, is approved thus: ‘The nationals of each of the High Contracting Parties equally with those of the most favored nation, shall have liberty freely to come with their merchant vessels and cargoes to all places, ports and waters of every kind within the territorial limits of the other which are or may be open to foreign commerce and navigation’; and
    • “(b) The first paragraph of Article XX, in the part which says: ‘Such officers may draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, deeds, and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen, and also contracts to which a countryman is a party’, is approved thus: ‘Such officers may draw up, attest, certify and authenticate unilateral acts, deeds, and testamentary dispositions of their countrymen, and also contracts to which a countryman is a party, to the end that they have effect in the territory of the State which has appointed said officers.’”

    Diario Oficial, July 23, 1927 (file No. 711.162/102).

    ↩