Foreign Relations of the United States Diplomatic Papers, 1935, The British Commonwealth; Europe, Volume II

711.5614/300

The Netherland Minister (Van Haersma de With) to the Secretary of State

No. 2257

Washington, 10 July, 1935.

Sir: I have the honor to bring the following to Your Excellency’s notice.

The attention of the Netherlands Government has been drawn by the fact that the Constitution of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, Article 1, Section 1, describes the territory of that Commonwealth as follows:

“The Philippines comprises all the territory ceded to the United States by the Treaty of Paris concluded between the United States and Spain on the 10th day of December 1898,³⁰ the limits of which are set forth in article III of said Treaty, together with all the islands embodied in the Treaty concluded at Washington between the United States and Spain on the 7th day of November 1900,³¹ and in the Treaty concluded between the United States and Great Britain on the 2nd day of January 1930³² and all territory over which the present Government of the Philippine Islands exercises jurisdiction”.

The said Section alludes to Article III of the Treaty of Paris, signed by the United States and Spain on 10 December 1898, setting the limits of Philippine territory. The island of Miangas (Palmas) however, which is included geographically within these limits, was declared to belong to the Netherlands by the Arbitral Decision of April 4, 1928, handed down by the Arbiter Dr. Max Huber, on the grounds that the island in question had been in the continuous and undisturbed possession of that country.³³

As a result of this Decision the island of Miangas does not fall within the limits of Article III of said Treaty. As however the Constitution of the Philippines refers to that Article without mentioning that fact or in any other way explicitly excluding the island of Miangas from its provisions, a certain—although remote—possibility of misunderstanding is not entirely excluded with regard to the sovereignty of the island in question.

In view of this situation the Netherland Government would be grateful to the State Department to issue a statement establishing the understanding that the island of Miangas (Palmas) is not comprised within the limits as set by Article III of the Philippine Constitution.

Please accept [etc.]

H. M. van Haersma de With

30. Foreign Relations, 1898, p. 831.
31. Ibid., 1900, p. 887.
32. Ibid., 1930, vol. iii, p. 147.
33. Permanent Court of Arbitration, Arbitral Award Rendered in Conformity with 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 4, 1928.