[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Chargé in Mexico (Boal)
At the Foreign Office this morning I mentioned to the Ambassador to
Washington, Mr. Castillo Nájera, the subject of our note 1634
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of June 2, 1936,44 regarding General
Claims arbitration. I told him that I understood that a note was in
preparation which might possibly make some difficulty, although of
course I did not know what was going to be said. I hoped it would be
possible to reach a forthright agreement on the method to be
followed, along the lines of the note which we had presented, so as
to get this complicated matter proceeded with as soon as possible. I
feared that counter-proposals, etc., would merely result in further
complication instead of simplifying the problem.
The Ambassador suggested that I should take it up with Beteta and
said he himself would take it up with the President when he saw him,
to urge expeditious and favorable action; he said he would put it on
the grounds that Mr. Welles45 had mentioned it to
him.
After seeing Ambassador Castillo Nájera, I saw General Hay, and,
having given him Ambassador Daniels’ acceptance for the Laredo
Highway ceremonies, I also reminded him of the General Claims
note.
The General said that a note was being prepared; that they had hoped
to have it yesterday, but it had been delayed. He said he thought it
would meet our views excepting one or two things not clear to them,
on which they would desire to have clarification.
After leaving General Hay, I stopped in to see Mr. Beteta and we had
a long talk of a general character, after which I brought up this
matter of General Claims and told him that I had just spoken to
General Hay about it.
Mr. Beteta said he was the one working on the case in his quality as
a lawyer. He said that along most lines our note seemed to be quite
acceptable in its proposals for procedure. One point, however, was
not clear to them from the note, and that was in regard to the
unmemorialized claims. He understood from the note that the proposal
was merely to bring up these unmemorialized claims in order that in
accordance with the Convention they might receive examination, but
that it was not intended to do more than proceed with the
formalities in this respect, which would really be just the
legalization of their rejection. He understood that all these claims
were based on insufficient evidence and if decisions were rendered
on them they would have to be adverse ones. Accordingly he felt that
while it was a very good idea to bring them before the Commission
with a view to disposing of them finally through this procedure, the
Mexican Government would not be favorable to any action which would
result in opening these claims for extensive study on the basis of
their being sufficiently valid and proved to warrant awards to the
claims. He
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said that if
his understanding of the note was correct, he felt that his
Government and ours would probably be in agreement regarding the
procedure and deposit of an omnibus memorial by June 30 by each
Agent. He also remarked that his Department had not yet finally
approved the reply to our note and therefore he was speaking merely
to express his own personal views on the matter.
I am under the impression, however, that he and the Minister are
already quite agreed on the reply in the sense of the foregoing.
