812.5045/630: Telegram
The Ambassador in Mexico ( Daniels ) to the Secretary of State
[Received 4:20 p.m.]
16. In two conversations with Suarez60 he assured me he was doing all he could to secure an agreement in the oil wage controversy. In the first he felt confident an arrangement mutually satisfactory would be reached. Yesterday at 1 o’clock, I had long conference. He then [Page 721] said three offers had been made to Mr. Armstrong61 as to bond but neither had been accepted. He expressed the belief that the oil company representative should agree to making the 3 million peso bond, even though the letter of the law did not permit release from the full 7 million peso if the oil men lost in a final decision. He said he had never known insistence on more than the sum fixed in the bond even though liability could not be limited. Oil men said they preferred to be forced to liability for the large amount than to agree to a course which they felt would be imposed if litigation went against them and they were unlikely to consent in a formal document to the attachment of all their property if the decision was adverse to them. They said neither of the three propositions offered protected them from the full wage finding and if they accepted either they would be consenting to a situation that might arise and which they could not meet. At 2 o’clock he informed me that he had an appointment with Armstrong at 4. If he knew yesterday was the dead line for making the bond he did not give me that information. Armstrong has not called at the Embassy but sent word yesterday that he would do so later. I will see Suarez and Hay62 today both about oil and tariff and wire result. Neither Embassy nor Commercial Attaché had any intimation of any tariff changes until they were published.