No. 1237.] Mr. Clayton to Mr. Hay. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's No. 613, of the 7th ultimo, inclosing a copy of a letter from the Secretary of the Interior, and of a dispatch from the United States consul at Ensenada, in relation to the enforced enlistment in the Mexican army of Francisco Cuero, an Indian from the Campo Indian Reservation in California. Following your instruction above mentioned, I addressed a note to the foreign office, copy inclosed, suggesting that Cuero be discharged from the Mexican army. I also inclose copy and translation of Mr. Mariscal's reply stating that the department of war had been requested to discharge Cuero, if possible, and copy and translation of a further note stating that his discharge had been ordered. I have, etc., POWELL CLAYTON. [Inclosure 1.] Mr. Clayton to Mr. Mariscal. EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, MR. MINISTER: Referring to our conversation of Saturday last relating to the enlistment into the Mexican army of the Indian, Francisco Cuero, and to the report of the jefe politico of the northern district of Lower California, a copy of which was transmitted to this embassy in your excellency's note of the 31st of August last; from the facts before me, including those contained in said report, it appears that the said Cuero is the son of the chief of an Indian tribe located at the Campo Indian Reservation in California. It also appears that when he enlisted into the Mexican army he was not a Mexican citizen, nor was he of that legal age which authorized him to manage his own affairs; and although, strictly speaking, he is not an American citizen, he is a domestic subject of the United States. Without referring to the question of involuntary enlistment, I repeat the suggestion I made to your excellency during the aforesaid conversation, and which seemed to receive your excellency's favorable consideration, that perhaps the best way to dispose of the question would be for your excellency's Government to kindly discharge from the army the soldier, Francisco Cuero. I renew, etc., POWELL CLAYTON. [Inclosure 2.-Translation.] Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Clayton. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MR. AMBASSADOR; I have had the honor to receive the note of December 24 last in which your excellency is pleased to ask that the soldier, Francisco Cuero, be discharged from the Mexican army because of his being the son of a chief of an Indian tribe residing in California and not a Mexican citizen. In reply I have the pleasure to say to your excellency that on this date I have requested the department of war to accede to the wishes expressed by the embassy unless there should be some particular circumstance which may not permit it. I renew, etc., IGNO. MARISCAL. [Inclosure 3.] Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Clayton. DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, MR. AMBASSADOR: Referring to my note of the 3d instant, I have the honor to inform your excellency that the department of war, in official communication of the 7th instant, advises me that it has ordered that the soldier, Francisco Cuero, be immediately discharged from the company fija norte of Lower California. I renew, etc., IGNO. MARISCAL. CONSULAR IMMUNITIES EXEMPTION OF CONSULS, UNDER MOST No. 244.] EMBASSY OF MEXICO, Washington, D. C., January 24, 1902. MOST EXCELLENT SIR: In August, 1901, Mr. A. H. d'Alemberte, tax collector of Escambia County, State of Florida, gave notice to Dr. Don Abraham Díaz, consul of Mexico at Pensacola, that he would have to pay poll and other taxes on his personal property for his private use for the year 1900. The consul applied to this embassy and reported that such taxes had never been demanded of foreign consular officers in that county; that he knew positively that the vice-consuls of England and Norway, and the former's predecessor who had lived there many years, were exempt therefrom, and that he (the informant) being a Mexican citizen and consul missus, not engaged in manufacture or commerce, considered himself exempt from personal taxation, in the same manner as are those of this country in Mexico placed under similar circumstances. Upon examining the question I replied to Dr. Díaz that he could claim exemption from personal taxation and taxes on his personal property, and exhibit to the tax collector the exequatur by which His Excellency the President of the United States authorized him to discharge his consular duties, drawing especial attention to the clause by which he was accorded the rights and privileges enjoyed by the consular officers of the most favored nations, among whom I mentioned to him those of Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Roumania, and Servia. These officers, by virtue of the treaties existing between their respective countries and the United States of America, enjoy the privilege of not paying personal taxes, direct or indirect, Federal, State, or municipal, when they are citizens of the States by which they were appointed and do not engage in manufacturing or trading business. As Dr. Díaz possessed all these qualifications, I advised him to bring forward all the said points, and, if the tax collector should nevertheless insist upon his demand, to pay the taxes under protest and report to me. Under date of the 3d instant the consul again reported to me that he had followed my instructions, and that upon being a second time requested to pay, after his reclamation had been rejected on the ground that there was no existing treaty between the United States and Mexico to support it, he paid under protest the sum to which the two personal taxes amounted. While laying the matter before you, together with the grounds for the opinion I gave to the consul of Mexico at Pensacola, I deem it expedient to supplement them with the following remarks: The lack of a consular convention between Mexico and the United States, similar to those which concede favors to the consular officers of Austria, Belgium, Italy, and other States, affords no valid argument in support of the denial to the Mexican consul at Pensacola of the treatment accorded to the said officers, for the latter being the most favored, the rights and privileges that they enjoy are to be extended to him by virtue of his exequatur, which grants them to him. If it were otherwise, the concession would be without practical effect. It is absolute and for that reason is not open to the interpretation that it is subject to the condition of the existence of a treaty, unless there be the unwarrantable intent to nullify the concession. But even though it should obtain, this interpretation ought not to come from an official of the State of Florida, but solely from the Chief Magistrate who issued the exequatur, under the exclusive powers conferred upon him by the laws of the Union to authorize the foreign consular officers to discharge their duties. On the other hand, all consuls, vice-consuls, and public consular agents, subjects of their respective governments, sent and salaried by them, and who do not, in the Mexican Republic, engage, directly or indirectly, in any kind of industrial or commercial pursuit, are exempt from all taxes and assessments. So does prescribe the Mexican act that lays down the law in regard to commercial agents residing in the Territory of the nation, and the consuls of the United States in Mexico receive its benefit without the guaranty of an international treaty. Now, then, reciprocity in this respect is the rule that governs the conduct of your Excellency's Government, according to the declaration made in 1851 by President Fillmore in his second annual message, as follows: What is due to our own public functionaries residing in foreign nations is exactly the measure of what is due to the functionaries of other governments residing here. It is, therefore, indisputable that the Mexican consular agents residing in any of the districts of the United States have a right to claim. the exemption from personal taxation granted by the law of my country, without there being required a special convention between the two Republics, and even though there should have been omitted from the exequatur of the commissions by which those officers are accredited the clause conferring upon them the rights and privileges of similar agents of the most favored nations. This treatment the Mexican consul at Pensacola has asked of the tax collector of Escambia County, and it has been denied to him. On submitting the point in dispute between the two functionaries to your enlightened examination, I am confident that you will decide in the sense dictated by justice and in the manner befitting the friendly relations happily existing between our two Republics. I have, etc., M. DE AZPIROZ. No. 222.] Mr. Hay to Mr. de Azpiroz. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 28, 1902. EXCELLENCY: Referring to your note No. 244, of the 24th ultimo, in relation to the poll and other personal taxes collected by the tax collectors of Escambia County, Fla., from the Mexican consul at Pensacola, Fla., I have the honor to inform you that the Department is in receipt of a letter from the governor of Florida, dated the 18th instant, in which he says that the consul will be exempted from the payment of such taxes, and that the comptroller of the state has been requested to refund to the consul the amount of such taxes for the year 1900, upon the presentation of receipts therefor. Accept, etc., JOHN HAY. PASSAGE THROUGH UNITED STATES OF REMAINS OF LATE MEXICAN MINISTER TO AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. Mr. Hill to Mr. de Azpiroz. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 6, 1902. EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to advise you that upon a request made by the minister of the United States at Vienna, in a dispatch dated the 18th ultimo, the collector of customs at Galveston, Tex., has been directed to facilitate the landing and delivery of the remains of Don José de Teresa y Miranda, late minister of Mexico to AustriaHungary, on their arrival at that port by the steamship Rieslau on or about the 10th instant. The collector of customs at New York has also been instructed to extend the usual courtesies to Madame de Teresa on her arrival there by the steamship Kronprinz Wilhelm, on or about the 21st instant, accompanied by her family, and to admit her baggage to free entry without examination. Accept, etc., DAVID J. HILL, No. 249.] Mr. de Azpiroz to Mr. Hay. [Translation.] EMBASSY OF MEXICO, Washington, February 7, 1902. YOUR EXCELLENCY: I have learned from your Department's note of yesterday that at the request of his excellency the minister of the United States at Vienna orders were issued to the collector of maritime customs at Galveston, Tex., to facilitate the landing and delivery of the mortal remains of Señor Don José de Teresa y Miranda, who was minister of Mexico in Austria-Hungary, brought by the steamer Rieslau, whose arrival at said port is expected toward the 10th of the present month; and that the collector of maritime customs at New a Printed, page 25. York has instructions to await with customary courtesy the señora, the widow of Teresa y Miranda, who, accompanied by her family, wil! disembark at the latter of said ports about the 21st of the present month, and to permit the free entry, without examination, of the señora's baggage on board of the steamer Kronprinz Wilhelm. In the name of my Government I have the honor to give your excellency most earnest thanks for these friendly concessions, requesting you to have the goodness to transmit them to the United States minister at Vienna for his assiduity in promoting them. I communicate to my Government the contents of the mentioned note, and renew, etc. M. DE AZPIROZ. ARREST AND IMPRISONMENT OF AMERICAN CITIZENS, RAILWAY EMPLOYEES, IN MEXICO-DETAILED REPORTS IN CASE OF NATHANIEL F. BONSALL. Mr. Clayton to Mr. Hay. No. 1274.] EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES, Mexico, February 21, 1902. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 540," of July 16, 1901, instructing me to continue to remonstrate on all proper occasions against the delay in discharging or bringing to trial Americans charged with responsibility for railway accidents, and to lose no opportunity to impress upon Mr. Mariscal the proposition that the preventive and remedial objects of Mexican legislation in respect to railway accidents would be no less well-and perhaps better-subserved by following the general rule of law in that regard in other countries. I inclose copies of the following correspondence: A letter expressing to me the thanks of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce for my action and prompt report relative to the imprisonment of American railway employees in Mexico; my reply; a further letter from the secretary of the chamber, forwarding a newspaper article stating that 130 railway men were in jail in Jalapa, Orizaba, Veracruz, and Oaxaca; a letter to the consul at Veracruz and to the consular agent at Oaxaca, transmitting this newspaper article and asking them to make a careful and conclusive investigation as to how many, if any, Americans are confined in jail in their districts on account of railroad accidents growing out of the movement of railroad trains in Mexico; the replies of both, stating that no American is imprisoned in either district for reasons above mentioned; a communication from Division 69, Order of Railway Conductors, asking a report from me regarding the imprisonment of American railway men in Mexico; my reply thereto; my letter to the consular agent at Guaymas, requesting him to procure from the manager of the Sonora Railway Company a supplemental statement showing the date and cause of arrest of each of the 17 employees whom he reported as having been arrested and imprisoned during the past year (see inclosure in my No. 998'), how long each was detained, and the final disposition of each case; the con a See Foreign Relations, 1901, p. 410. |