881.512/66
The Department of State to the British Embassy54
Memorandum
The Department of State has received and given its careful consideration to the memorandum of the British Embassy of January 7 which, after referring to the British Embassy’s note of December 7 on the subject of the proposed draft of a general law affecting the taxation of American citizens and protégés in the Tangier Zone, expresses the hope that the Government of the United States will authorize the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier to give the approval of the Government of the United States to the application to American citizens and protégés in the Zone of four specific draft laws altering certain tax rates in the Zone as soon as they shall have become law, assuming of course that they shall have been adopted by the Tangier administration without amendment.
In passing, it may be said that the delay of the Department in replying to the Embassy’s note of December 7 has been due to the necessity of awaiting the receipt of a communication from the French Resident General in Morocco made in the established and recognized form through the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier55 regarding the general law to which reference was made in the note of December 7. This communication the Department understands is now in transit and upon its arrival in Washington, it will be carefully considered, as will the communications the Department has received or may receive from the signatories to the Revised Statute of Tangier bearing upon the matter.
With regard to the more specific suggestion made in the British Embassy’s memorandum of January 7 to the effect that this Government authorize its representative at Tangier to give this Government’s [Page 520] assent to the four particular draft laws to which that memorandum referred as soon as they shall have become law, assuming that they shall have been passed without amendment, the Department likewise feels constrained to maintain its established practice of awaiting receipt of their text with an accompanying request for the consent of this Government to their application to American citizens and protégés in Tangier made in due form from the French Resident General in Morocco through the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier. When the Department has had opportunity to examine the text of these draft laws received in the manner indicated, it will be prompt to issue appropriate instructions in the premises to the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier. It is the understanding of the Department that these texts are already on their way to the Department from the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier with an accompanying formal communication addressed to him by the French Resident General. Accordingly, pending the arrival of these documents and their subsequent examination by the Department, this Government feels unable to act upon the request of the French Resident General in Morocco in the sense suggested by the British Embassy’s memorandum of January 7.