711.12155/1078

The Secretary of State to the Mexican Ambassador (González Roa)

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s note dated July 12, 1934,15 in which reference is made to a Resolution recently approved by the Congress of the United States authorizing this Government to rent for a period of 25 years a building to be constructed by the owners of certain lands situated in that part of El Paso, Texas, known as the Chamizal.

Your Excellency adverts in this connection to the note which your Embassy addressed to this Department on May 31, 1929,16 concerning the reported intention of the United States Government at that time to acquire title to lands in the Chamizal for the construction of a federal building, in which note it was stated that the Government of Mexico would not recognize by reason of such acquisition any change in the status of the Chamizal. In your note under acknowledgment [Page 483] Your Excellency advises that your Government has instructed you to announce that it reserves the rights which it claims in the Chamizal area and therefore maintains the reservations set forth in your Embassy’s note of May 31, 1929.

In reply I take this opportunity to inform Your Excellency that these reservations have been duly noted and that this Department does not construe the Resolution referred to in your note as involving any change in the existing status of the area in question.

Accept [etc.]

Cordell Hull