412.11 Oil/22

The Secretary of State to the President of the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Farish)

My Dear Mr. Farish: I refer to your letter of November 13, 1941,28 with further reference to the plan for the appraisal and payment of compensation for properties, rights, and interests of American nationals in the Mexican petroleum industry affected by the Mexican Decree of Expropriation dated March 18, 1938, or by other acts of the Mexican Government.

Since this plan was discussed with you and other representatives of American interests on September 2729 and October 2830 and in the Department’s letter of October 28 [29], with enclosure, as well as in your letter of October 8 and your letter under acknowledgment,31 it is scarcely necessary in this letter to enter into any further discussion of the plan. As you know, the Department on November 19 signed an agreement with the Mexican Ambassador adopting a plan substantially identical with that in question. There are enclosed for convenient reference copies of my statement to the press on November 1932 and of the Department’s general press release of the same date.33

It was a source of very deep regret to the Department that your company did not agree with it concerning the desirability of proceeding with the agreement just signed. For the reasons with which you are familiar, the Department believes that the agreement is a constructive step forward toward the final solution of the petroleum dispute.

[Page 401]

As you have been informed, the Department will have a very definite interest in the evaluation proceedings as provided in the agreement and it is desirous that the American expert have at his command all pertinent data. The agreement contains provision for the submission by the various American interests to the experts to be appointed of all data deemed by them to be proper for those experts to take into consideration in determining the value of the respective claims. The Department hopes that your company will take full advantage of this opportunity to file with the American expert the necessary information and such arguments as it may think proper in order that he may intelligently perform his functions in support of your interests in evaluation proceedings.

In conclusion, I assure you of the Department’s desire to be of whatever assistance it properly can in obtaining adequate compensation for the affected American interests.

Sincerely yours,

Cordell Hull
  1. Not printed.
  2. Memorandum of conversation not printed.
  3. No record of conversation of October 28 found in Department files.
  4. None printed.
  5. Department of State Bulletin, November 22, 1941, p. 399.
  6. Ibid., p. 400.