811.504 Mexico/8–2547
The Ambassador in Mexico (Thurston) to the Secretary of State
first priority
No. 4458
Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegram No. 774 of August 15, 1947,54 instructing that the contents of its airgram No. 653 of August 6, 1947, relating to the recruitment of 10,000 additional Mexican agricultural workers under the agreement of March 10, 1947, be submitted formally to the Mexican Foreign Office.
There are enclosed a copy of the Embassy’s Note No. 1307 dated August 19, 1947, and a translated copy of Note No. 3949 dated August 22, 1947,55 received today from the Foreign Office in reply, from which it will be observed that the request for additional workers under the agreement of last March has been refused. The Mexican Government is willing, however, to furnish workers if they are contracted in accordance with the agreement entered into on August 4, 1942, amended in 1943.
In informal conversations at the Foreign Office it was pointed out by the Oficial Mayor that the agreement of last March contained no provision for the recruitment of workers who are not wetbacks. That official stressed the fact that the March agreement dealt solely with Mexican workers who were found illegally in the United States and who were returned to Mexico for documentation, which would permit their legal reentry into the United States. He mentioned that the Ministry had to consider the pressure of public opinion, which would censure recruitment on a wetback basis, depriving workers of the advantages accruing under the 1942 agreement, such as, higher pay, medical attention, and provision for transportation. He also stated that to his knowledge approximately 130,000 wetbacks are in the United States and that only 3,000 have been processed through the recruiting stations established in April following the agreement of last March. He complained that farmers in Texas were not disposed to cooperate in returning wetbacks in accordance with the agreement and that the Mexican Government could not expose itself to justifiable [Page 829] public criticism by acceding to this request, which would only aggravate the border problem and result in further exploitation of Mexican labor, particularly in the State of Texas, where the greatest problem of racial discrimination exists.
Respectfully yours,
Second Secretary of Embassy