811.504 Mexico/203
The Secretary of State to the Chairman of the War Manpower Commission (McNutt)
My Dear Governor McNutt: I refer to my letter of November 19, 1943, in answer to your communication of November 9, 1943,85 regarding [Page 582] the functions of a four man commission to consider a claim of the Mexican Government on behalf of Mexican railroad workers in this country under the agreement of April 29, 1943.
I now enclose for your information a copy of despatch no. 14,248 of November 16, 1943, from our Embassy at Mexico City, to which are attached as enclosures copies of the notes exchanged86 by the Embassy and the Mexican Foreign Office setting up the four man commission referred to and specifying the duties which are assigned to it. The note from the Mexican Foreign Office expresses agreement to the renewal of individual work contracts, subject to the consent of the workers themselves, and refers to the contracting of 5,000 additional maintenance of way workers, which, I understand, are now being selected in Mexico City.
It will be noted that the Mexican Government, while accepting the duties of the commission as proposed in your letter of November 9, expresses the hope that the commission will not be limited to considering the incident at Fullerton, California, but that the labors and the competence of the commission may be made extensive to all other cases of wage discrimination which may have arisen. The Embassy has been given no instructions regarding this point raised by the Mexican Government since it was agreed in the meeting of November 9 in the War Manpower Commission that it would be best to limit this four man commission to a solution of the present differences, leaving future problems to be settled through usual diplomatic channels.
Sincerely yours,
Under Secretary