American meat certificates shall be viséed by a Mexican consular officer, and directing that my good offices be used with the Government of Mexico, in order to induce it, if possible, to accept the certificates without the requirement in question, on the ground of mutuality of interest in the commercial relations between the two countries. I inclose a copy of my note addressed to the foreign office in pursuance of this instruction. I have, etc., D. E. THOMPSON. [Inclosure.] Ambassador Thompson to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, January 29, 1907. Mr. MINISTER: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency's note, dated November 5, 1906, inclosing a copy of a communication from the department of government, which contains the recommendation of the superior board of health that American meat certificates be accepted by the Mexican authorities when viséed by a Mexican consular officer. I am instructed to inquire whether it would not be possible to waive the requirement of the consular visé on the ground of mutuality of interest in the commercial relations between the two countries. It would seem that this certificate for meat products, when issued, represents an official certificate from the United States Government. I renew, etc., File No. 2483/6-7. No. 433.] D. E. THOMPSON. Chargé McCreery to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, February 14, 1907. SIP: Referring to the embassy's No. 412 of the 29th ultimo, inclosing a copy of the ambassador's note addressed to the foreign office as directed in the department's No. 182, of January 17, 1907, inquiring whether it would not be possible for the Mexican Government to waive the requirement of a consular visa of American meat certificates, I have the honor to inclose copy and translation of Mr. Mariscal's reply, and of the communication from the department of government, therewith transmitted, stating that articles 37 of the Sanitary Code, and 67 of the General Customs Regulations, prevent the waiver of the requirement. I have, etc. FENTON R. MCCREERY. [Inclosure-Translation.] The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Chargé McCreery, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Mr. CHARGÉ D'AFFAIRES: As a result of your note, dated January 29 last, I have the honor to transmit to you herewith copy of a communication I have received from the department of government, stating that it is not possible to • See Foreign Relations, 1906, p. 1119. waive the requisite of consular visa, under the basis of mutual interests in the commercial relations between Mexico and the United States, because said requisite is ordered by articles 37 of the Sanitary Code and 67 of the General Customs Regulations. I renew, etc. IGNO MARISCAL. [Subinclosure-Translation.] The Subsecretary of the Department of Government to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT, MEXICO, FIRST BUREAU. (No. 4620.) Having taken note of the communication from the department under your worthy charge, No. 2001, dated the 6th instant, in which you have been pleased to include the note of the 29th ultimo addressed to you by the American embassy at this capital, acknowledging the receipt of the copy of the communication from this department containing the recommendation from the superior board of health in order that American meat certificates be accepted by Mexican authorities, when they are visaed by a Mexican consular officer, and stating that instructions have been received by said embassy to inquire whether it would not be possible to waive the requisite of the consular visa, under the basis of mutual interests in the commercial relations of both countries, I beg to inform you that it is not possible to waive the requisite of the consular visa because the same is ordered by articles 37 of the Sanitary Code and 67 of the General Customs Regulations; and by waiving the same it would mean to repeal the above legal provisions, something that is not within the province of this department. I renew to you my distinguished consideration. Liberty and the constitution. Mexico, February 8, 1907. By order of the secretary: The subsecretary. MIG. S. MACEDO. File No. 3146. No. 349.] PASSPORTS ISSUED UNDER ASSUMED NAMES. Ambassador Thompson to the Secretary of State. AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, December 7, 1906. SIR: Permit me to bring to the department's attention a passport complication on which I would be pleased to have an opinion. A few days ago a man, giving the name of Rafael J. del Rio y Rico, called at the embassy and presented to me a letter of introduction, as per copy inclosed," from Mr. Lawrence F. Bedford, an attorney-at-law of this city, and asked me to take up with the Mexican Government a certain case, which was brought to the attention of the department by former Ambassador Clayton, as per his despatch No. 1645, of December 5, 1902. A few days later he again called at the embassy and applied for the renewal of a passport that was issued under General Clayton's signature to Rafael J. del Rio y Rico. In reading through the papers filed in the embassy relative to the above case I a Not printed. found on inclosure 13 of the above-mentioned dispatch that the real name of the applicant, according to his own statement, is José de la Cruz Catalino Rico. It also appears that in his application for American citizenship, inclosure 8 in said dispatch, filed in the district court for the southern district of the State of New York, he gave the name of Rafael Rico, and as it is evident that Mr. Rico, in securing his first passport under his assumed name of Rafael J. del Rio y Rico and in asking for its renewal at the present time, has sought to establish an identity which has been disputed in the courts of this country, as shown by the inclosures which accompanied General Clayton's above-mentioned dispatch, and to avail himself of his American citizenship (claimed he having been born in Mexico and lived here during the last eleven years) to base a claim against the Mexican Government, I have, therefore, deemed it advisable to obtain the views of the department as to whether the passport in question should be renewed under the name of Rafael J. del Rio y Rico, regardless of Mr. Rico's own declaration that his real name is José de la Cruz Catalino Rico, and that his application for American citizenship shows the name of Rafael Rico. The name of Rico is the surname of his mother, while that of del Rio is the surname of the man claimed by the applicant to be his father, and Mr. Rico, following the custom of Spanish countries, has made up with the above two surnames and his assumed first name that of Rafael J. del Rio y Rico, under which he has applied for the passport in question. I have, etc., D. E. THOMPSON. File No. 3146. No. 179.] The Secretary of State to Ambassador Thompson. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, January 15, 1907. SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 349, of the 7th ultimo, asking whether, under the circumstances explained therein, you should issue a passport to Rafael J. del Rio y Rico. In reply I have to say that if Mr. Rico is entitled to receive a passport, it would seem to be expedient to have it follow the preceding passport, issued to him by Ambassador Clayton, provided it does not appear that his desire to have it in the same name is with intent to use it improperly, and provided also that he is generally known under that name. It would also seem that there should be no objection under the circumstances stated by you to issuing a passport to "Rafael Rico, commonly known as Rafael del Rio y Rico," according to the suggestion in an instruction of Mr. Wharton to Mr. Osiel, July 8, 1889, 173 Domestic Letters, 547. (Moore's International Law Digest, section 509.) I am, etc., ELIHU ROOT. CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO FOR THE ELIMINATION OF THE BANCOS IN THE RIO GRANDE FROM THE EFFECTS OF ARTICLE II OF THE TREATY OF NOVEMBER 12, 1884. Signed at Washington March 20, 1905. Ratification advised by the Senate February 28, 1907. Ratifications exchanged at Washington May 31, 1907. BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas a Convention between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico, providing for eliminating the bancos in the Rio Grande from the effects of Article II of the Treaty of November 12, 1884, was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries at Washington on the 20th day of March, one thousand nine hundred and five, the original of which Convention being in the English and Spanish languages is word for word as follows: Whereas, for the purpose of obviating the difficulties arising from the application of Article V of the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, dated February 2, 1848, and Article I of the Treaty of December 30, 1853, both concluded between the United States of America and Mexico difficulties growing out of the frequent changes to which the beds of the Rio Grande and Colorado River are subject-there was signed in Washington on November 12, 1884, by the Plenipotentiaries of the United States and Mexico, a convention containing the following stipulations: "ARTICLE I.-The dividing line shall forever be that described in the aforesaid treaty and follow the center of the normal channel of the rivers named, notwithstanding any alterations in the banks or in the course of those rivers, provided that such alterations be effected by natural causes through the slow and gradual erosion and deposit of alluvium and not by the abandonment of an existing river bed and the opening of a new one. "ARTICLE II.—Any other change, wrought by the force of the current whether by the cutting of a new bed or when there is more than one channel by the deepening of another channel than that which marked the boundary at the time of the survey made under the aforesaid treaty, shall produce no change in the dividing line as fixed by the surveys of the International Boundary Commissions in 1852, but the line then fixed shall continue to follow the middle of the original channel bed, even though this should become wholly dry or be obstructed by deposits." Whereas, as a result of the topographical labors of the Boundary Commission created by the Convention of March 1, 1889, it has been observed that there is a typical class of changes effected in the bed of the Rio Grande, in which, owing to slow and gradual erosion, coupled with avulsion, said river abandons its old channel and there are separated from it small portions of land known as " bancos " bounded by the said old bed, and which, according to the terms of Article II of the aforementioned Convention of 1884, remain subject to the dominion and jurisdiction of the country from which they have been separated; Whereas, said "bancos " are left at a distance from the new river bed, and, by reason of the successive deposits of alluvium, the old channel is becoming effaced, the land of said "bancos" becomes confused with the land of the "bancos" contiguous thereto, thus giving rise to difficulties and controversies, some of an international and others of a private character; Whereas, the labors of the International Boundary Commission, undertaken with the object of fixing the boundary line with reference to the "bancos," have demonstrated that the application to these "bancos" of the principle established in Article II of the Convention of 1884 renders difficult the solution of the controversies mentioned, and, instead of simplifying, complicates the said boundary line between the two countries: Therefore the Governments of the United States of America and the United States of Mexico, being desirous to enter into a convention to establish more fitting rules for the solution of such difficulties, have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries That of the United States of America, Alvey A. Adee, Acting Secretary of State of the United States; That of the United States of Mexico, its Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Licenciado Don Manuel de Azpíroz; Who, after exhibiting their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the following articles: ARTICLE I. The fifty-eight (58) bancos surveyed and described in the report of the consulting engineers, dated May 30, 1898, to which reference is made in the record of proceedings of the International Boundary Commission, dated June 14, 1898, and which are drawn on fifty-four (54) maps on a scale of one to five thousand (1 to 5,000), and three index maps, signed by the Commissioners and by the Plenipotentiaries appointed by the convention, are hereby eliminated from the effects of Article II of the Treaty of November 12, 1884. Within the part of the Rio Grande comprised between its mouth and its confluence with the San Juan River the boundary line between the two countries shall be the broken red line shown on the said maps-that is, it shall follow the deepest channel of the streamand the dominion and jurisdiction of so many of the aforesaid fiftyeight (58) bancos as may remain on the right bank of the river shall pass to Mexico, and the dominion and jurisdiction of those of the said fifty-eight (58) bancos which may remain on the left bank shall pass to the United States of America. ARTICLE II. The International Commission shall, in the future, be guided by the principle of elimination of the bancos established in the foregoing article, with regard to the labors concerning the boundary line throughout that part of the Rio Grande and the Colorado River which serves as a boundary between the two nations. There are hereby excepted from this provision the portions of land segregated by the change in the bed of the said rivers having an area of over two hundred and fifty (250) hectares, or a population of over two |