templated, thus affording opportunity to make appropriate representations against any change which may be found or deemed burdensome or calculated to impair the principle of reciprocal favor upon which the understanding rests. I am, etc., ROBERT BACON. [Inclosure.] The Acting Secretary of the Treasury to the Secretary of State. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 12, 1906. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th instant, in which you state that your department has repeated by telegraph to the United States ambassador at Mexico this department's telegram of the 8th instant, in regard to merchandise shipped duty free through the United States from port to port in Mexico. I have to request the return of the draft of the regulations governing shipments from port to port in the United States through Mexico, transmitted to you with this department's letter of May 16 last. In your letter of the 3d instant you state that the Mexican treasury department will offer no impediment to the adoption of said regulations, provided the Government of the United States will, in its turn, accept such measures as Mexico may enact for the transit of goods which, leaving Mexican port or frontier, may pass over American territory to be reimported into Mexico by some other port or frontier. I am of the opinion that the acceptance by this Government of such measures as Mexico may enact for the transit of goods from port to port in Mexico, through the United States, under section 3005 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, should not be made a condition precedent to the adoption by Mexico of the regulations proposed by this Government, under section 3006. As you were informed on the 8th instant, merchandise may be shipped free of duty through the United States from port to port in Mexico, under regulations made pursuant to section 3005 of the Revised Statutes, as amended by the act of May 21, 1900. Any modification of these regulations which the Mexican Government shall at any time propose will have due consideration by this department and will be adopted if compatible with the purpose of the law, but I do not feel that the Government should be committed to the acceptance of any changes without knowledge of what they are. Respectfully, C. H. KEEP. The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Thompson. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 15, 1906. Do not commit Government of United States to acceptance of proposed arrangement for regulation of transit of merchandise from port to port of either country through territory of the other. Treasury does not think that acceptance by this Government of such measures as Mexico may enact for transit of goods from port to port in Mexico through the United States, under section 3005, Revised Statutes, as amended, should be made condition precedent to adoption by Mexico of regulations proposed by this Government under section 3006. Any modification of American regulations which Mexico shall at any time propose will have due consideration by this Government; but we should not be committed to acceptance of any changes without knowledge of what they are. Instruction 167 on way to you explains. ADEE, Acting. Ambassador Thompson to the Secretary of State. [Telegram.] MEXICO CITY, MEXICO, December 18, 1906. Your telegraph instructions 15th, under date of 14th, I sent Minister of Finance Limantour copy of act of May 21, 1900, amending section 3005, Revised Statutes, and copy of section 3006, Revised Statutes, calling his attention to regulations transmitted in my note of June 4, last, and saying: "It would seem to me that regulations providing for the transit of merchandise through one country should be about the same as those providing for transit through the other." This morning I have from him the following: "I am much obliged to you for the copies you had the goodness to send me with your favor of the 14th instant. It seems to me that the regulations for the transit of merchandise over the territory of one of our nations should apply upon goods in transit over that of the other, and this is the point I would like to make clear in order that I may be positive that the Government of the United States would accept, with respect to the transit of merchandise from Mexico through American territory, that the Mexican Government make use of the same right or privilege of sending inspectors, and that, in general, an application be made of the reglementary provisions contained in the project which you had the kindness to transmit to this department through that of foreign affairs under date of June 13 last. Hoping that you may be able to give me some information upon this point, etc." Because of his great desire to arrive at a conclusion, I telegraph all of this. D. E. THOMPSON. The Secretary of State to Ambassador Thompson. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 20, 1906. SIR: Referring to instruction No. 167, of the 14th instant, I inclose herewith for your information a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Treasury stating that the regulations for the transit of merchandise from port to port of the United States through Mexican territory will be published for the information and guidance of customs officers, with instructions to accept the manifest referred to in paragraph 2 of the regulations when presented either by the owner or shipper or by the carrier. I am, etc., E. ROOT. [Inclosure.] The Secretary of the Treasury to the Secretary of State. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, Washington, December 15, 1906. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 14th instant, in which, referring to this department's letter of the 12th idem, in regard to amendments at the suggestion of the Mexican Government for shipments from port to port in Mexico through the United States, under section 3005 of the Revised Statutes, you state that "it may reasonably be assumed that the intention of the understanding is that each Government shall make known to the other any modifications of the transit regulations which may be made or contemplated, thus affording opportunity to make appropriate representations against any change which may be found or deemed burdensome or calculated to impair the principle of reciprocal favor upon which the understanding rests." The regulations will be published for the information and guidance of customs officers, with instructions to accept the manifest referred to in paragraph 2 of the regulations when presented either by the owner or shipper or by the carrier. Respectfully, L. M. SHAW. The Secretary of State to Ambassador Thompson. [Telegram.-Extract.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 21, 1906. Answering your telegram of 18th, Secretary of Treasury says: "Transshipment of goods in transit from port to port in Mexico through United States may be supervised by Mexican inspectors under conditions similar to those for goods coming from port to port in the United States through Mexico." ROOT. REMOVAL OF BODIES OF DECEASED AMERICANS FROM MEXICO. No. 167.] Ambassador Thompson to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, August 20, 1906. SIR: I am in receipt of instruction No. 90, of the 7th, which reached this embassy on the 16th instant, transmitting a copy of a letter from Mr. II. M. Maus, in which, on behalf of the National Funeral Directors' Association of the United States, he complains of the great expense and loss of time caused in Mexico, under Mexican laws, in the removal to the United States of bodies of American citizens who die in Mexico, and requesting the Department of State to use its good offices to secure a uniform Mexican regulation under which the removal of a dead body from Mexico to the United States will be as easy as from one State to another in our Union; while the department directs me to report as to the export tax on bodies, the local transit charges alleged to be levied in places through which the body pasess, the high charge for embalming, and the railway tariffs. In response I have to report that I fear we would encounter practically insurmountable obstacles in any endeavor to secure a uniform Mexican regulation under which, as suggested by Mr. Maus, the removal of a dead body to the United States will be as easy as from one State to another in our Union, for the reason that the laws governing the burial, exhumation, and removal of bodies are made by the legislature of the several States of the Mexican Union, and be cause the laws of every State in regard thereto differ very materially from one another. So, to bring about the adoption of the uniform regulation referred to by Mr. Maus, an appeal would have to be presented to the legislature of each Mexican State, praying for a change in its present laws and regulations, which, I have been informed, are based upon and made to suit sectional and climate conditions, in some of which States the various forms of fever exist and where the application of sanitary laws must naturally differ from some others of the Mexican States. So far as the export or exhumation tax on bodies is concerned, I have been informed that this costs from $150 to $300, Mexican currency, according to the State from which it is desired to remove a body; and this tax may be imposed by any of the state governments, which, under its laws, is at liberty either to suspend or impose the same, as may suit the pleasure of the governor of any of those States. I have also been informed that there is no local transit charge in places through which a body may pass en route from Mexico to the United States. As to the high charges for embalming, which range from $500 to $1,000, Mexican currency, nothing can be said, since they are made by private physicians, who are not under government regulation and who are therefore at liberty to charge whatever sum may be customary. For the transportation of a dead body, Mexican railways charge two first-class fares, one of which is for the person who, under the law, is required to accompany the body in transit, all of which are matters over which the Mexican Government can exercise no control. I have, etc., D. E. THOMPSON. CONVENTION FOR THE ARBITRATION OF PECUNIARY CLAIMS, SIGNED AT MEXICO CITY IN 1902. No. 32.] The Secretary of State to Ambassador Thompson. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 18, 1906. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 41," of the 9th instant, inquiring whether it was not the intention of the department, by its No. 15, of the 25th ultimo, to ascertain whether Mexico had received notice of the ratification of the convention for the arbitration of pecuniary claims by the Governments named in the President's proclamation thereof, rather than to ascertain whether Mexico had received notice of the modification by any governments other than those mentioned in the proclamation. By Article V of the convention in question it is provided that the convention" shall be binding on the States ratifying it from the date. on which five signatory governments have ratified the same," and that the ratification of the convention by the signatory States "shall be transmitted to the Government of the United States of Mexico, which shall notify the other governments of the ratifications it may receive." @ Not printed. In pursuance of this provision the Government of Mexico gave notice to the Government of the United States that the convention had been ratified by Guatemala, Salvador, Peru, and Honduras. The Government of the United States, having also ratified the convention, made the necessary five ratifying countries to put the convention into force between them, and the President thereupon proclaimed the convention on March 25, 1905. Subsequently Mexico gave notice of its own ratification, and the convention is now in force between the United States, Guatemala, Salvador, Peru, Honduras, and Mexico. What the department wishes to ascertain is whether any governments other than these have notified the Government of Mexico of their ratification of the convention, or informed that Government of any reason why they have not done so. I am, etc., ELIHU ROOT. No. 74.] Ambassador Thompson to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN EMBASSY, SIR: With reference to the department's dispatches Nos. 15 and 32, of April 25 and May 18, respectively, and to this embassy's No. 65, of May 24, I inclose herewith a copy and translation of a note received from the foreign office, under date of the 26th instant, with reference to the treaty for the arbitration of pecuniary claims, signed at the Second International American Conference, and saying that since the ratification by the United States and by Mexico no other country has communicated having ratified the said instrument, neither has there been any correspondence from any of the governments which have not yet ratified with respect to their reasons for not doing so. I have, etc., D. E. THOMPSON. [Inclosure-Translation.] The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Ambassador Thompson. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Mr. AMBASSADOR: In reply to your excellency's note of the 24th instant, in which, pursuant to instructions received from your Government, you requested certain information with reference to the treaty for the arbitration of pecuniary claims, signed at the Second International American Conference, I have the honor to communicate to your excellency that since the ratification by the United States and by Mexico no other country has communicated having ratified the said instrument, neither has there been any correspondence from any of the governments which have not yet ratified it with respect to their reasons for not doing so. IGNACIO MARISCAL. I renew, etc., • Not printed. |