Papers relating to the foreign relations of the United States, 1929, Volume III

711.4115A/60

Memorandum of a Conference Held at 10 A.M., July 24, 1929, Regarding the Turtle Islands Boundary Negotiations

July 24, 1929, 10 a.m.

• Present
  • Major General Frank McIntyre,⁶³
  • Mr. J. A. Metzger,⁶⁴
  • Mr. J. K. Caldwell⁶⁵
  • Sir Esme Howard, British Ambassador,
  • Mr. F. W. Fraser,⁶⁶
  • Mr. T. A. Shone, First Secretary of the British Embassy.

The British Ambassador read the attached “Memorandum for Negotiations with the United States Government Regarding the Turtle and Mangsi Islands”.

As the British Ambassador had sent to London the photostatic copies of the charts which were enclosed with the Department’s note to the British Embassy of August 20, 1927,⁶⁷ Mr. Boggs, the Geographer of the Department, undertook to prepare for the British Ambassador by tomorrow morning duplicates of the hydrographic charts from which the photostatic copies had been made.

During the conference General McIntyre received a telephone message from Brigadier General Parker, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department, stating that in concurrence with the opinion expressed in the report made by General McIntyre after his visit to the Turtle Islands last October, the Governor General of the Philippine Islands did not consider it advisable to take over the administration of the Turtle Islands at this time. As was pointed out in the memorandum of General McIntyre’s conversation with Mr. Johnson on July 16,⁶⁸ General McIntyre had been very much impressed, during his visit in North Borneo, with the difficulties which would confront the Government of the Philippine Islands in administering the Turtle Islands.

Following the receipt of the telephone message from General Parker, General McIntyre handed to the British Ambassador a copy of the attached draft treaty^68a which provides for the definitive delimitation of the boundary of the Turtle Islands but (by Article 2) permits of the temporary continuance of their administration by the British North Borneo Company. It was pointed out to the British Ambassador that to take any of the steps advocated in paragraph 9 of his memorandum (namely to cede, sell, or lease the Turtle Islands) would be much more difficult than to make an arrangement such as has been provided for in the draft treaty, which would practically continue in force the present 1907 agreement with reference to administration.⁶⁹

The Ambassador suggested that consideration be given to the possibility of including in the treaty merely the delimitation of the boundary and a provision that the administration of the Islands be arranged for by an exchange of notes.

Mr. Fraser stated that the Mangsi Islands are hardly more than a group of reefs lying to the northwest of the Turtle Islands and that, although they have not been referred to specifically in the correspondence concerning these negotiations, they have been administered by the British North Borneo Company under the 1907 agreement. He suggested that perhaps it might be arranged, either by a provision in the treaty or by an exchange of notes, that the British North Borneo Company continue to administer those islands which it has been administering since 1907 in accordance with the temporary agreement, thus including the Mangsi Islands as well as the Turtle Islands.

Although the British Ambassador admitted the difficulties attending any of the courses suggested in paragraph 9 of his memorandum, he suggested that perhaps the American delegation might wish to refer them to the Secretary, and asked that he be informed of the proposal which the American delegation wished to put forward after further consideration. It was understood that he intended to communicate with his Government upon receiving such a proposal.

Following the departure of the British representatives, the proposals which had been made in paragraph 9 of the British Ambassador’s memorandum were discussed. It was the opinion of the American representatives that, on account of the practical difficulties which would be encountered, it would be inadvisable to undertake to arrange for ceding, selling, or leasing the Turtle Islands to the British North Borneo Company, and that the method contemplated in the draft treaty would seem to offer the simplest means of achieving the important objects of the negotiations, namely, the permanent delimitation of the boundary and the temporary administration of the Islands by the British North Borneo Company. General McIntyre stated that he believed that it would be acceptable to the War Department to have the period referred to in Article 2 of the draft treaty increased from six months to one year, thus making the period the same as that specified in the temporary agreement of 1907.

It was arranged that General McIntyre would confer with Brigadier General Parker, Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, and that after the memorandum of today’s conference had been given appropriate consideration in this Department, the American representatives should agree concerning the proposal which should be made to the British Ambassador, although it was not thought that any important change would be necessary in the attached draft treaty other than to change the period of six months to one year in Article 2.

There is attached a letter from General McIntyre, dated July 24, 1929, enclosing copies of the telegrams exchanged between the Bureau of Insular Affairs and the Governor General of the Philippine Islands.⁷⁰

J. K. C[aldwell]

[Annex]

British Memorandum for Negotiations With the United States Government Regarding the Turtle and Mangsi Islands

[Undated.]

1. There is no dispute as to the legal claim of the Philippines to ownership of the islands, arising out of the Madrid Protocol of 1885⁷¹ by Article 3 of which the islands were assigned to Spain, and the Convention of 1900,⁷² supplementary to the Peace Treaty between the United States of America and Spain,⁷³ under which the Spanish claim was relinquished to the United States.

2. Nevertheless, it cannot be reasonably disputed that the islands belong geographically to North Borneo, the Government of which has administered them for so long and which is in a far better position to do so than the Government of the Philippines.

3. Administration of the islands from Manila as compared with Sandakan would, it is feared, give rise to difficulties of the following nature:

(i) Mutual Police Difficulties. In a few hours natives or others can reach these Islands from the Mainland of Borneo and vice versa. If extradition follows its normal lengthy channels, an intolerable situation might arise for both Administrations.

(ii) Customs Difficulties. The inhabitants of these islands will still have to buy and sell in Sandakan or on the coast of North Borneo; the copra produced from these Turtle Islands could hardly be disposed of in any other way.

(iii) Medical. In the case of epidemics or sickness inhabitants of these islands must still rely on North Borneo for assistance.

(iv) Departmental Administration. The Judicial, Land and other Departments function easily in these Islands while under the jurisdiction of the North Borneo Government; it is not probable that the corresponding Departments of the Government of the Philippine Islands could function as easily in the Islands so distant.

4. Expense would be entailed in policing such small islands at a distance from the centre of the Philippine Administration and if there were lack of adequate policing the islands might easily become a great cause of friction and even of serious trouble to the Government of North Borneo.

5. The Islands are of little value in themselves. The population of the seven islands in the Turtle Group claimed by the United States Government is approximately 220 persons who are practically all migrants from North Borneo. The annual revenue is small: the direct revenue, derived from the Turtle Egg farm, quit rents, boat licenses and poll tax is estimated at $3,610 and indirect revenue from export duty on copra at a further $600.00; total $4,210. But Taganac, with its lighthouse, constructed by the North Borneo Government, is of importance to Sandakan at whose very gates it lies; the value of the light if erected at any other point in the jurisdiction of North Borneo would be greatly decreased.

6. Sandakan is the natural import and export centre for the Turtle Islands and must continue to be so. To remove the islands from the jurisdiction of the North Borneo Government can scarcely fail to result in hardship on the inhabitants who have always recognised and relied on that Government.

7. The Mangsi Islands are visited by natives from neighbouring islands belonging to North Borneo, to plant, tend and harvest their crops. They do not reside there permanently. If these islands were permitted to remain within the jurisdiction of North Borneo, possible difficulties and hardships to these natives might be avoided without any disadvantage being imposed upon the United States Government or the Government of the Philippine Islands.

8. The United States authorities have in the past stated that North Borneo was the source of opium smuggling into the Philippines. Since 1914, owing to measures taken by the North Borneo Government this illicit traffic has to all intents and purposes ceased. The United States representative at the Eleventh Session of the Advisory Committee of the League of Nations on Traffic in Opium held at Geneva in April, 1928, stated that there had been no evidence of smuggling from North Borneo to the Philippines for the last two years.⁷⁴

Other forms of smuggling are negligible.

In any case, the suppression of smuggling, if that be one of the objects of the United States Government in wishing to take over the administration of the islands, would not be facilitated by administering the islands from Manila, for the only practicable route for smuggling is via intricate inland waters and Tambisan Island.

9. For all these reasons the Government of North Borneo are very anxious to continue to administer the Turtle and Mangsi Islands and they ask whether as a matter of equity the United States Government would not be willing to cede them, or sell them, or let them on a long lease. It is believed that any of these solutions would be acceptable to the North Borneo Company, but details would have to be submitted to them in London in the event of the United States Government agreeing to any such proposal. In this connexion it may not be amiss to recall that Palmas Island, situated about 50 miles south of Mindanao, which had been controlled for many years by the Government of the Netherlands East Indies, although within the geographical limits of the Philippines, was awarded to Holland by the Hague International Court, the United States Government making no objection to its cession.⁷⁵ Much more, then, should the position of the Turtle and Mangsi Islands which are admittedly outside the geographical limits of the Philippine Islands, be generously considered by the United States of America.

63. Recently Chief of the Bureau of Insular Affairs, War Department.
64. Assistant to the Solicitor, Department of State.
65. Division of Far Eastern Affairs, Department of State.
66. Recently British Government Secretary in North Borneo.
67. Foreign Relations, 1927, vol. ii, p. 779.
68. Not printed.
69. Not printed.
69. For exchange of notes, dated July 3 and 10, 1907, see Foreign Relations, 1907, pt 1, pp. 547, 548.
70. Letter and enclosures not printed.
71. Protocol between Great Britain, Germany, and Spain, respecting the sovereignty of Spain over the Sulu Archipelago, etc., signed at Madrid, March 7, 1885; British and Foreign State Papers, vol. lxxvi, p. 58.
72. Treaty between the United States and Spain for the cession to the United States of any and all islands of the Philippine Archipelago lying outside of the lines described in article III of the treaty of peace of December 10, 1898, signed at Washington, November 7, 1900; Foreign Relations, 1900, p. 887.
73. Signed at Paris, December 10, 1898; ibid., 1898, p. 831.
74. See League of Nations, Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs, Minutes of the Eleventh Session, Held at Geneva From April 12th to 27th, 1928, C.328.M.88.1928.XI.[O.C.816.] (Geneva, 1928), p. 32.
75. See The Hague, Permanent Court of Arbitration, Arbitral Award Rendered in Conformity With the Special Agreement Concluded on January 23rd, 1925, Between the United States of America and the Netherlands Relating to the Arbitration of Differences Respecting Sovereignty Over the Island of Palmas (or Miangas), April 4th, 1928 ([The Hague, 1928]); see also, Foreign Relations, 1925, vol. ii, pp. 614 ff.