711.12/897
Memorandum by the Secretary of State of a Conversation With the Chilean Ambassador (Cruchaga), January 21, 1927
He then told me that he had heard from Mexico that my suggestion about arbitration was very satisfactory and said that he thought that the Mexican Ambassador and I could agree on an arbitration in a very short time. I told him that according to my information the Mexican Government was continuing its confiscatory acts; that they were daily cancelling permits to drill for oil on properties owned by American citizens and that, of course, we could not permit any such confiscatory proceedings to go on. He said that he might suggest to the Mexican Government that they stop their confiscatory [Page 228] proceedings pending negotiation. I told him I did not care to have him make any suggestions; that the Mexican Government was going ahead with full knowledge of our position; that they understood it fully from my notes to that Government; that their attitude did not seem to be conciliatory at all. I declined to permit him to make any suggestions to the Mexican Government on the subject.