this Convention for its advice and consent, I beg to suggest that Your Excellency call upon me at your convenience in order that we may communicate to each other the respective lists of three Canadian jurists as provided in Department's note of March 22, 1910, which provision the Department understands to have been assented to by your Government. The Department believes that it will be found that we shall have no difficulty in agreeing upon an umpire in the course of an informal conversation.

The Department most cordially reciprocates your felicitations upon this further evidence of the neighborly good understanding between our two Governments which has once more enabled us to solve our differences in a manner which is not only satisfactory as regards the immediate matter in controversy, but also adds another landmark in the history of arbitration in which the two Republics have borne so distinguished a part.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurance of my highest consideration.

P. C. KNOX.

His Excellency Señor Don FRANCISCO LEÓN DE LA BARRA, Ambassador of Mexico.

CONVENTION FOR THE ARBITRATION OF THE CHAMIZAL Case.

The United States of America and the United States of Mexico, desiring to terminate, in accordance with the various conventions now existing between the two countries and in accordance with the principles of international law, the difference which has arisen between the two governments as to the international title to the Chamizal tract, upon which the International Boundary Commission has failed to agree, have resolved to refer this difference to the International Boundary Commission established by the convention of 1889, said Commission to be enlarged for the purpose of this case only as hereinafter provided, and have appointed as their respective plenipotentiaries:

The President of the United States of America, Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State of the United States of America; and

The President of the United States of Mexico, Don Francisco León de la Barra, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the United States of Mexico, at Washington.

Who, after having exhibited their respective full powers, and having found the same to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:

ARTICLE I.

The Chamizal tract in dispute is located at El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Chihuahua, and is bounded westerly and southerly by the middle of the present channel of the river, easterly by the middle of the abandoned channel of 1897, and northerly by the middle of the channel of the Rio Grande as surveyed by Emery and Salazar in 1852, and is substantially as shown on a map on a scale of 1-5000, signed by General Anson Mills, Commissioner on the part of the United States, and Señor Don F. Javier Osorno, Commissioner on the part of Mexico, which accompanies the report of the International Boundary Commission, in Case No. 13, entitled "Alleged Obstruction in the Mexican End of the El Paso Street Railway Bridge and Backwaters Caused by the Great Bend in the River Below," and on file in the archives of the two governments.

ARTICLE 2.

The difference as to the international title of the Chamizal tract shall be again referred to the International Boundary Commission which shall be enlarged by the addition, for the purposes of the consideration and decision of the aforesaid difference only, of a third Commissioner who shall preside as umpire over the deliberations of the Commission. The umpire shall be a Canadian jurist and shall be selected by the two governments by common accord, or, failing such agreement, the government of Canada shall be requested to name him.

ARTICLE 3.

The Commission shall decide as to whether the international title to the Chamizal tract is in the United States or Mexico. The decision of the Commission whether rendered unanimously or by majority vote of the Commissioners and the umpire shall be final and conclusive upon both governments. The decision shall be in writing and shall state the reasons upon which it is based. It shall be rendered within thirty days after the close of the hearings.

ARTICLE 4.

On or before December 1, 1910, each government shall present to the Agent of the other party two printed copies (with such additional copies as may be agreed on) of its case, together with the documentary evidence upon which it relies. It shall be sufficient

for this purpose if such case is delivered at the Mexican Embassy at Washington or at the American Embassy at the City of Mexico, as the case may be, for transmission to the Agent of its government. As soon thereafter as may be, and within ten days, each party shall deliver two printed copies of its case and accompanying documentary evidence to each member of the International Boundary Commission, including the Umpire. Delivery to the two Commissioners may be made at their offices in El Paso, Texas; the copies intended for the umpire may be delivered at the British Embassy at Washington or at the British Legation at the City of Mexico.

On or before February 1, 1911, each government may present to the Agent of the other party a counter case with documentary evidence in answer to the case and documentary evidence of the other party. The counter case shall be delivered in the same manner as the case.

The Commission shall hold its first session in the City of El Paso, State of Texas, where the offices of the two Commissioners are situated, on March 1, 1911, and shall proceed to the trial of the case with all convenient speed, sitting either at El Paso or Ciudad Juarez as the convenience of the Commission may require. The Commission shall act in accordance with the procedure established in the Boundary Convention of 1889. It shall, however, be empowered to adopt, for the purposes of the trial of this case, such rules and regulations as it may see fit.

At the first meeting of the Commission each party shall deliver in duplicate, with such additional copies as may be agreed on, a printed argument showing the points relied upon in the case and counter case, and referring to the documentary evidence upon which it is based. Each party shall have the right to file such supplemental printed brief as it may deem advisable. Such briefs shall be filed within ten days after the close of the hearings, unless further time be granted by the Commission.

ARTICLE 5.

Each government shall be entitled to be represented before the Commission by an agent and such counsel as it may designate, who shall be entitled to make oral argument and to examine and crossexamine witnesses and also, subject to the discretion of the Commission, to introduce further documentary evidence for cause shown.

ARTICLE 6.

Each government shall pay the expenses of the presentation of its case to the Commission; all other expenses including the honorarium for the Umpire shall be borne by the two governments in equal moieties.

ARTICLE 7.

The present Convention shall be ratified in accordance with the Constitutional forms of the Contracting Parties and shall take effect from the date of the exchange of its ratifications.

The ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the above Articles, both in the English and Spanish languages, and have hereunto affixed their seals.

DONE in duplicate at the city of Washington this

day of

No. 261.

Excellency:

Mr. Knox to Señor de la Barra.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

WASHINGTON, June 27, 1910.

Referring to previous correspondence, particularly to the Department's note No. 208, of March 22, 1910, reviewing the circumstances in connection with the dispute between the United States and Mexico over the sovereignty of the Chamizal tract and proposing that the question be submitted to arbitration, I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a letter, dated to-day and addressed by the Department to Mr. Wilbur Keblinger, American Commissioner on the Commission for the Study of the Equitable Distribution of the Waters of the Rio Grande and Colorado Rivers, designating him as the officer to pass on the question of the existence of prima facie Mexican title and of the fact of actual possession under such title on March 15, 1910, in cases where legal proceedings looking towards ejectment are threatened or undertaken.

Accept, Excellency, the renewed assurances of my highest consideration.

Enclosure:

As stated above.

His Excellency

Señor Don FRANCISCO LEÓN DE LA BARRA,

P. C. KNOX.

Ambassador of Mexico.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Knox to Mr. Keblinger.

Mr. WILBUR KEBLINGER,

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

WASHINGTON, June 27, 1910.

American Commissioner on the Commission for the
Study of the Equitable Distribution of the

Waters of the Rio Grande and Colorado Rivers,

The Balfour, Washington, D. C.

SIR: The Department encloses herewith a copy of its note No. 208, of March 22, 1910, to the Ambassador of Mexico at this capital, reviewing the circumstances in connection with the dispute between the United States and Mexico over the sovereignty of the Chamizal tract and proposing that the question be submitted to arbitration. Your attention is particularly called to that passage in the note in which the Department says: "The Department proposes to appoint an officer who shall be authorized to pass upon the question of the existence of prima facie Mexican title and of the fact of actual possession under such title on March 15, 1910, and to report to the Department the cases wherein ejectment should be prevented by virtue of international comity, whereupon the necessary action will be taken by the appropriate officers of the Department of Justice as has been done in the past.”

The Department takes pleasure in designating you as the officer in question, and you are accordingly authorized, in case you are so requested either by the Mexican Commissioner of the International Boundary Commission or by any person or persons in the Chamizal tract against whom legal proceedings looking toward ejectment are threatened or undertaken, to pass upon the questions as to whether or not such persons are claiming under prima facie Mexican title, and whether or not "they or their predecessors in interest were in actual occupation of the lands so claimed on March 15, 1910." In case you find, first, that any claimant claims under prima facie Mexican title, and, second, that such person or his predecessors in interest were in actual possession of the land so claimed on March 15, 1910, you will report your findings in full to the Department, together with such an abstract of the evidence in the case as you may deem necessary to the end that the Department may request the appropriate action through the Department of Justice. In case immediate ejectment proceedings are threatened so that there is no time for reference of the matter to the Department, you will act upon your own responsibility, and if