881.512/68
The Department of State to the French Embassy
Memorandum
The Department of State refers to the note verbale of the French Embassy of January 3, 1929, concerning a general measure proposed by the International Legislative Assembly of Tangier and sometimes referred to as the “padlock law”, providing for the provisional application of new customs duties the day after the measure proposed to create them has been filed in the office of the Assembly, and concerning also certain proposed specific taxation measures, the text of all of which was communicated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Sultan to the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier. In this note verbale the French Embassy indicates that the Ambassador of France would be grateful if the Government [Page 527] of the United States will give the necessary instructions to its Diplomatic Agent and Consul General to enable him to accede to the request for the application of these measures to American nationals and ressortissants, and suggests the desirability of this Government’s giving him the power to consent to the application of future legislation without the necessity of referring to Washington in each case.
The Department of State is pleased to inform the French Embassy that, under instructions from the Government of the United States, the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General has given its consent to the application to American nationals and ressortissants of the four specific taxation measures to which reference was made in the note verbale. It regrets, however, that the Government of the United States, after careful consideration of the request for its consent to the application to its nationals and ressortissants of the general measure, has not been able to see its way clear to granting the consent requested and that the American Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier has so informed the Resident-General in a note which sets forth the position of this Government as follows:
[Here follows text of note as quoted in instruction No. 505, January 29, 1929, printed on page 521.]