881.512/77
The Secretary of State to the Diplomatic Agent and Consul General at Tangier (Blake)
Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your despatch No. 408 of June 17, 1929, and enclosures,62 with respect to the request of the French Resident General for the application to American ressortissants of the Tangier laws on the registration and stamp taxes.
It appears to the Department that the enclosure to your despatch containing the registration and stamp law is merely the modification of the dahirs promulgated by virtue of Article 32 of the Convention of December 18, 1923, dated May 15, 1925, namely the dahir with respect to alcohols and beers, the dahir with respect to consumption taxes upon sugars, etc., the dahir with respect to registration taxes and the dahir with respect to the stamp tax. It would, therefore, appear that if the Department should give the consent of this Government to the provisions of the dahir enclosed with your despatch under acknowledgment it would consequently entail the consent of this Government in their entirety to the four dahirs of May 15, 1925, above referred to.
While the Department can appreciate that it may be for the practical benefit of American nationals and ressortissants doing business in the Tangier Zone to pay taxes in cases of transfers of movable property and the stamp taxes provided by the above mentioned dahirs, the taxes are objectionable in the cases of transfers of movable property, because American nationals would be subjected to continued interference in their private business transactions. Therefore, in the absence of any unusual emergency the Department is not inclined to give the consent of this Government to the application of these taxes to American nationals and ressortissants in the Tangier Zone. However, there is no objection to your advising American nationals and ressortissants that they may deem it advisable voluntarily to pay these taxes. The Department, however, has no objection to the application of the provisions with respect to the transfer of real property or rights therein or to the dahirs with respect to alcohol and beer and the consumption taxes on sugars, etc.
[Page 529]You may, therefore, inform the French Resident General that this Government gives its consent to the provisions of the dahirs with respect to alcohols and beers and the consumption taxes on sugars, etc., and to the regulations for taxes on the transfers of immovable property and rights therein, but regrets that it cannot give its consent to the provisions with respect to taxes on transfers of movable property and the provisions of the stamp tax as envisioned in the dahir of 1925 and its recent modifications.
The consent of this Government should be given with the usual reservations with respect to the jurisdiction of the American consular courts over infractions of these laws committed by American nationals or ressortissants and that the law will be effective only from the date upon which the notice of this Government’s consent is given to the French Resident General. Furthermore, the consent of this Government should be given without prejudice to the position which was taken or may hereafter be taken regarding the present régime of the Tangier zone.
In view of the fact that this Government does not give its consent to the stamp tax it would not appear necessary to make any reservation with respect to the examination of the books and papers of American nationals and ressortissants by the officials charged with the collection of the stamp tax.
I am [etc.]
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