812.5200/947
The Ambassador in Mexico (Daniels) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 16.]
Sir: Referring to my despatch No. 2942 of October 3, 1935,29 concerning the non-payment by the Mexican Government of compensation for lands expropriated from American citizens, I have the honor to report that, in a conversation which the Counselor of this Embassy had this morning with the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Ceniceros said that President Cárdenas was very much concerned over the insistence of my representations that adequate compensation be paid for all lands expropriated under the agrarian laws from American citizens.
[Page 779]Mr. Ceniceros said that it was manifestly impossible for the Mexican Government to give cash or bonds for lands expropriated, all surplus in the Treasury having been earmarked for other purposes, and the Government could not give out bonds in the enormous amount that would be necessary to reimburse all persons for lands that had been, and might be in the future, expropriated from them. If compensation were given to American citizens, the Mexican Government would be obliged to pay all other foreigners and Mexican citizens as well. Mr. Ceniceros said that the Agrarian Department had been directed to prepare a statement showing the values of all lands already expropriated from American citizens for which bonds had not been offered and accepted and a statement showing the value of lands belonging to American citizens against which petitions for ejidos had been filed but which had not yet been expropriated.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
However, as the Department fully realizes, the administration of President Càrdenas is so definitely committed to the distribution of land to the peasants that it is politically impossible for it abruptly to reverse this policy. There is no money to pay compensation and the President is convinced that the Congress would not vote the credits even were it possible to devise some means of providing security for a further issue of agrarian bonds. Under the circumstances, I feel that any arrangement which protects American citizens from further expropriations, even though it is but a temporary expedient, is well worth seizing in the hopes that a more opportune time may present itself in the future for the urging of a more rational land policy in which public lands and those already taken may be fully utilized before more private property is taken.…Although the Department will have to give consideration to finding some solution to the question of compensation for lands already expropriated, such as the setting up of a new Claims Commission or including these claims in the protocol on agrarian claims now under discussion with the Mexican Government and which now includes only those accruing before September, 1923 [1927], still, the temporary removal of the principal cause of friction in the friendly relations between the two Governments is well worth striving for, and later, as I have said, conditions may be more favorable for a definite settlement of this dangerously contentious problem.
I shall continue to press the matter with the Foreign Office…
Respectfully yours,
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