ing the Imperial and Coachella Valleys from this source, while the engineer's reports which accompany your letter disclose the fact that conditions are so serious as to constitute this an emergency. The conference board incorporated in its report of June 7, 1911 (H. Doc. No. 504, 62d Cong., 2d sess., p. 161), the recommendation "that further work should be undertaken at once and in the following order: (a) The levees north of Volcano Lake should be raised, strengthened, and extended; (b) the existing levees along the west bank of Colorado River to the Abejas should be repaired and protected." On page 160, caption 3 (ibid.), they further recommend that in addition steps be taken to hold the river by adequate bank revetment practically on its present alignment." Gen. W. L. Marshall, consulting engineer for the Department of the Interior, concurs with these recommendations. On page 185, caption 8 (ibid.), he says: To revet the banks in the most substantial way yet developed and as applied along our western rivers, as far as a breach directly into the Imperial Canal or Alamo River can take place, then to construct and riprap the levee north of Volcano Lake, is in my mind the best possible solution in so far as affects the interests of the United States. As is pointed out by Gen. Marshall: The greatest and most imminent danger to United States lands and property lies in a possible breach in the banks and levee on the west bank of the Colorado River in the first 8 miles below the Mexican-California boundary, thus admitting water directly into the Imperial Canal. (Ibid., p. 185, cap. 11.) The serious cutting of the western bank at a point known as House 7 saggests the necessity for adopting some method, such as revetment, to stop bank crosion and preserve the alignment of the river at this point. This situation calls for immediate action, while the conference considers the proper raising and strengthening of the Volcano Lake embankment to be an essential requisite as a protection of Imperial Valley against menace from the south, and should be constructed without delay." (Ibid., p. 160, cap. 4, b.) (Italics ours.) 66 Connected with the permanent control of the Colorado River are international questions which must be settled by an international board, as is pointed out by the conference. In view of the length of time which will probably elapse before these questions can be determined, it is manifestly inadvisable to defer for consideration, by such possible commission, the work above outlined, which all agree should be done immediately. When the overflow occurs, as is certain to happen if steps to prevent are not taken-when it does come the Colorado will again send its waters into the Salton Sea. Owing to the great fall which the water will have and the peculiar character of the soil, the checking of the river will prove a most serious undertaking and would be accomplished only by the expenditure of millions, if at all. The floods of 1905-1907 are estimated to have cost between $5,000,000 and $7,000,000 in money expended to control the river and for the damage wrought. When this task was accomplished, in 1907, nine out of ten engineers are reported to have pronounced the undertaking impossible. If not checked, the river will fill the Salton Sink, compelling the abandonment of the Imperial and Coachella Valleys. Within this region there are now 30,000 inhabitants and property valued at $40,000,000 to $50,000,000. Wherefore, on behalf of the people of Imperial Valley, we, their properly authorized representatives, do most respectfully request that you urge upon Congress the necessity of an appropriation, at the present session, of a sum sufficient to permit the following work being done: 1. The proper repairing and strengthening of the levees along the west bank of the Colorado River as far as the Abejas River: 2. The retention of the river, by adequate bank revetment, on its present alignment, and thus preventing a breach in the banks, admitting water directly into the Imperial Canal. 3. The raising, strengthening, and extension of the levee north of Volcano Lake and riprapping the same. We have the honor to be, most respectfully, yours, BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, Imperial County, State of California, File No. 711.1216M/384. The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador. No. 974.] [Extract.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington; September 10, 1912. SIR: Referring to previous correspondence regarding the matter of appointing a commission to consider the equitable distribution of the waters of the Colorado River, and particularly to the Department's instructions of March 21, 1912, and the Embassy's despatch No. 1379 of April 27, 1912, I enclose herewith a draft of a convention providing for a preliminary commission to study and report upon the bases of distribution of the waters of this river. It is desired that you at once write a note to the Mexican Foreign Office, submitting the attached draft, and say that this Government would be glad to sign the convention and put it into operation at the earliest possible moment. Should any changes in the draft be proposed, you will submit them to the Department and await its instructions. [Comment for the information of the Ambassador.] The Department is most anxious that this matter shall be concluded at the earliest possible moment. I am [etc.] File No. 711.1216M/387. HUNTINGTON WILSON. The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State. No. 1690.] AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, September 26, 1912. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's instruction No. 974 of the 10th instant and to report that the action therein contemplated has been taken and that I am in receipt of an acknowledgment from the Mexican Minister for Foreign Affairs wherein it is stated that the subject will receive the early attention of this Government. With reply in extenso of the Minister I shall transmit a copy of my note based upon the paragraphed comment transmitted with the Department's instruction. I have [etc.] HENRY LANE WILSON. File No. 711.1216M/399. The American Chargé d'Affaires to the Secretary of State. No. 1780.] AMERICAN EMBASSY, SIR: I have the honor to refer to previous correspondence regarding the negotiation of a convention concerning the Colorado River, Not printed. and especially to the Department's instruction No. 974, of September 10th, and the Ambassador's despatch No. 1690, of the 26th of the same month. In this connection I beg to transmit herewith copies of the Ambassador's note to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, dated September 21; translations of the Minister's note to me of November 16; and copies and translations of the counter draft of the convention enclosed with the latter note. I have [etc.] MONTGOMERY SCHUYLER. File No. 711.1216M/399. The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador. No. 1215.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 8, 1913. SIR: The Department has received your No. 1780, of November 20, 1912, transmitting the counter draft of the Mexican Government in the matter of the convention for the equitable distribution of the waters of the Colorado River, and in reply informs you that the Department has taken up this matter with the Secretary of the Interior and as a result of conferences with him the enclosed draft convention has been prepared, which you will submit to the Mexican Foreign Office with a note embodying the essentials of the following statement: 1 Statement explanatory of the wording of the amended draft convention.] There are transmitted herewith for the Embassy's confidential information copies of memoranda and correspondence by the Solicitor of the Department regarding his interviews with the Secretary of the Interior upon this question, as also a copy of the Solicitor's memorandum assembling the various proposals, article by article, and commenting thereon.1 I am [etc.] For Mr. Knox: File No. 711.1216 M/420a. The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, May 2, 1913. Colorado River. Has the Foreign Office accepted changes proposed to its counter draft indicated in Department's amended convention inclosed in Department's instruction of February 8, 1913? MOORE. Not printed. File No. 711.1216M/421. The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State. [Telegram-Paraphrase.] AMERICAN EMBASSY, Mexico, May 3, 1913. 220. The Department's telegram of May 2 re Colorado River. Minister of Fomento states he is in practical agreement with the Department's counter-draft of the amended convention. WILSON. NOTE. On May 8, 1913, the Ambassador included in a telegram1 covering various subjects brought up in an interview with General Huerta the information that Huerta had refused to consider the Colorado River question until formal recognition of his administration by the United States. No further action appears to have been taken during 1913. SETTLEMENT OF THE CONTROVERSY OF THE TLAHUALILO COMPANY WITH THE GOVERNMENT OF MEXICO. NOTE. The Tlahualilo Company, whose legal title is "Compañía Agrícola, Industrial, Colonizadora, Limitada, del Tlahualilo, Sociedad Anónima," was organized under the laws of Mexico August 25, 1885. In 1896 it mortgaged its properties and franchises for the purpose of securing an issue of £350.000 of bonds. The bond issue was made in London and New York. The properties of the company are situated on and near the river Nazas, Mexico. In April, 1887, the company entered into contract with the Mexican Government, approved by the Mexican Congress in 1888, by which the company was authorized to colonize its lands, to build a canal from the Nazas River and to take water from that river for irrigation purposes. In 1908 the Mexican Government issued regulations for the distribution of the waters of the river Nazas, which greatly reduced the amount of water the company had been receiving. The company protested and, having received no redress, instituted suit in the courts of Mexico against the Government. In the meanwhile the company requested the good offices of the British and American Governments. The American Ambassador at Mexico City was instructed to support the representations of the British Minister at Mexico City in behalf of the company. On August 5, 1910, the American Ambassador reported that on August 4 he accompanied the British Minister to the Foreign Office to present a British memorandum dated August 4, which, after reviewing the entire history of the company, concluded as follows: In the conclusion thus stated His Majesty's Government desire to say that they have not overlooked the reported plan and policy of the Mexican Government to conserve the waters of the Nazas River, and wish to assure the This telegram is printed under Political Affairs. -FR 1913- -63 File No. 17063/109. Mexican Government that they view with entire sympathy all efforts made by that Government to store and preserve for effective use in their arid regions the waters of their various streams and rivers. Moreover, they thoroughly understand and appreciate that in carrying out any extensive plan of conservation there may well be as incident thereto inconvenience and perhaps some loss to individual enterprises and undertakings. But His Majesty's Government cannot admit, and they feel sure that the Mexican Government would not contend, that any plan of conservation should be undertaken and carried out which shall appropriate or wilfully confiscate without full and complete compensation, the lawful and established rights of private individuals; and if in the course of the consummation of any such conservation plan it should become necessary to take the lawful and vested property or interest of any private individual or company, that then and in that event the injured party must receive due, proper, and full compensation for any and all such property which it has been found necessary to appropriate. His Majesty's Government do not, however, understand that the present difficulties of the Tlahualilo Company arise as the result of any such conservation measures, but that on the contrary as the facts are presented they flow from and are the result of a disposition and purpose on the part of the Mexican Government, for some reason not apparent, to encourage and foster upon the lower Nazas River large agricultural enterprises at the expense of similar enterprises upon the upper river, and specifically and particularly (if the regulations of 1895 and 1909 are to continue in force) to bring about such a result in a way that will be all but wholly at the expense of the Tlahualilo Company. Therefore, His Majesty's Government, without presuming to pass upon the national propriety or impropriety of the action so taken by the Mexican Government, must insist that if the fruition of this policy carries with it the destruction of British interests then and in that event the Mexican Government are under obligation fully and amply to compensate the British interests which are thus sacrificed. His Majesty's Government therefore, desire to say in all friendliness but with all earnestness that if the present plans of the Mexican Government are carried out and such plans result in the loss and destruction predicted by the Tlahualilo Company, His Majesty's Government will, at the proper moment, find it necessary to present to the Mexican Government a claim for damages for the injuries which have been suffered by those British subjects who have so heavily invested in this enterprise. His Majesty's Government are, however, sincere in their desire that such an eventuality may be avoided and to this end they renew the suggestion which they have already made and now make in connection with the representations made by the Government of the United States that every effort be made to reach with the Tlahualilo Company an amicable adjustment of this difficulty by allowing it to retain and by confirming it in such of its rights as will enable it successfully to carry out its enterprise which, as an individual undertaking, ministers in no small degree to the national prosperity of Mexico; and that pending such adjustment of this difficulty, or at least for one year, the Tlahaulilo Company be permitted to enjoy the abridged rights granted to it under the Regulations of 1895 in order that meanwhile its enterprise may not be completely destroyed. His Majesty's Government, sincere in their desire that nothing whatever shall happen which may threaten in the slightest degree to disturb the tra ditional friendly relation of the two Governments and firm in its belief that a proper and equitable adjustment of this controversy is possible if it be approached in an amicable and conciliatory manner by the parties thereto, cannot urge with too much emphasis, in order to avoid expensive litigations and controversies which, if the Company loses, are almost sure to result in diplomatic representations and claims for large amounts in damages, that such adjustment as that recommended above shall be entered into by the Mexican Government and the Company at the earliest possible moment. His Majesty's Government feel confident that the Mexican Government will give earnest consideration to the suggestions made for an immediate amicable settlement of this controversy, but in case it should unfortunately transpire that such a settlement is for any reason impossible, His Majesty's Government suggests the propriety of immediately submitting the whole matter for determination to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. |