710.1012 Washington/50: Telegram
The Chargé in Mexico (Schoenfeld) to the Secretary of State
[Received 7:45 p.m.]
153. Referring to the Department’s circular telegram dated June 6, 11 a.m.,97 I was informed today by the Acting Minister for Foreign [Page 636] Affairs that the Government of Mexico had no objection to holding the Conciliation and Arbitration Conference at Washington on December 10, 1928. The Acting Minister also indicated that the Government of Mexico found acceptable the suggestion as to naming two jurisconsults to represent it.
With regard to the last paragraph of the Department’s instruction No. 252, April 14,98 in which inquiry was made as to the attitude of the Government of Mexico regarding obligatory arbitration of juridical questions, Señor Estrada stated that this subject was being given a very thorough study, but he indicated that the Government of Mexico had little confidence in the efficacy of obligatory arbitration in disputes between Mexico and a more powerful country. The Government of Mexico felt that such treaties substantially restricted their freedom of action in such disputes. While it was understood that the suggested obligatory arbitration applied only to juridical questions, nevertheless such questions could easily assume a political color, and in such event the United States, for example, always had the advantage. These expressions of the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs were entirely informal, but I think they accurately represent the present attitude of the Government of Mexico toward the question of obligatory arbitration of juridical questions. Upon further study of the purposes of the Conference they may be modified.