charge, making the protective works permanent and providing for their maintenance.

It is not believed that a free gift of this money should be made, as by its investment the stability of property of great value will be secured and the in crease in land values throughout the Imperial Valley will be sufficient to justify the provision that this money should be returned to the Government.

The Reclamation Service should be authorized to take steps at once for the construction of an irrigation project, under the terms of the reclamation act, for the lands in the Imperial Valley and in the lower Colorado River Valley. The service should be in position to proceed actively with the organization of the project and the construction of the works as soon as the conditions in regard to the protection of the valley against overflow will justify expenditures for this purpose.

To accomplish this, the United States should acquire the rights of the California Development Company and its subsidiary corporations in the United States and Mexico upon such reasonable terms as shall protect the interests of the Government and of the water users. The United States should obtain by convention with Mexico the right to carry water through that country upon reasonable conditions.

Most of the land in the Imperial Valley has been entered under the terms of the desert-land act or the homestead laws, and title has not passed out or the United States.

The construction work required would be: The main canal, some 60 miles in length, from Laguna Dam into the Imperial Valley; the repair and partial reconstruction of the present distribution system in the valley and its extension to other lands, mainly public; diversion dams and distribution systems in the Colorado River Valley, and provision for supplementing the natural flow of the river by means of such storage reservoirs as may be necessary. This would provide for the complete irrigation of 300,000 acres in the Imperial Valley and for 400,000 acres additional in the United States in the valley of the Colorado in Arizona and California.

The reclamation fund now available has been allotted for projects under construction, and the anticipated additions to the fund for the next few years will be needed to complete these projects. It will therefore be impossible to construct a reclamation project for the Imperial Valley with the funds now in hand, and it will be necessary for Congress to make specific appropriation for this work if it decides to undertake it.

Such appropriation would be expended for a project carried out under all the provisions of the reclamation act, requiring the return to the reclamation fund of the cost of construction and maintenance of the irrigation works, and there should be the further requirement that the cost of permanent protective works and their maintenance be repaid.

The interests of the Government in this matter are so great in the protection of its own property, particularly of the public lands, that Congress is justified in taking prompt and effective measures toward the relief of the present situation. No steps, however, should be taken except with a broad comprehension of the magnitude of the work and with the belief that within the next ten years the works and development will be carried out to their full proportions. The plan in general is to enter upon a broad, comprehensive scheme of development for all the irrigable land upon Colorado River with needed storage at the headwaters, so that none of the water of this great river which can be put to beneficial use will be allowed to go to waste. The Imperial Valley will never have a safe and adequate supply of water until the main canal extends from the Leguna Dam. At each end this dam is connected with rock bluffs and provides a permanent heading founded on rock for the diversion of the water. Any works built below this point would not be safe from destruction by floods and can not be depended upon for a permanent and reliable supply of water to the valley.

If Congress does not give authority and make adequate provision to take up this work in the way suggested, it must be inferred that it acquiesces in the abandonment of the work at Laguna and of all future attempts to utilize the valuable public domain in this part of the country.

THE WHITE HOUSE, January 12, 1907.

185833-2013

THEODORE ROOSEVELT.

EXHIBIT B.”

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, TRANSMITTING A LETTER OF THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR SUBMITTING AN APPEAL OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF IMPERIAL COUNTY, CAL., FOR FURTHER APPROPRIATIONS OF MONEY AND FURTHER WORKS FOR THE PROTECTION OF LANDS AND PROPERTY IN THE UNITED STATES AGAINST THE FLOOD WATERS OF THE COLORADO RIVER.

To the Senate and House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a letter from the Secretary of the Interior inclosing an appeal from the board of supervisors of Imperial County, Cal., fo further ap propriations of money and further works for the protection of lands and property in the United States against the flood waters of the Colorado River.

In my message dated February 2, 1912, transmitting data of the work of the Interior Department, published as House Document No. 504, Sixty-second Congress, second session, there is contained a report of the engineer in charge of the work of protection done under the act of June 25, 1910, appropriating $1,000,000 for this purpose, and also a report of a special board convened by my direction to review this report and advise what further work should be done along the lower Colorado River for the protection of the interests of the United States. In this report of the special board, dated June 7, 1911, there will be found a recommendation that certain additional work should be at once executed, and an estimate of $1,000,000 as necessary for this work.

In my message I stated that I did not at that time make a definite recommendation, for the reason that the plan to be adopted for the betterment of conditions near the mouth of the Colorado River proves to be so dependent on a free and full agreement between the Government of Mexico and the Government of the United States as to joint expenditure and joint use that it is unwise to move until we can obtain some agreement with that Government which will enable us to submit to Congress a larger plan, better adapted to the exigencies presented than the one adopted. As stated in this message, the matter was being pressed upon the attention of the Mexican Government and favorable progress has been made in the negotiations. However, it is not probable that the negotiations with Mexico can be consummated before the adjournment of Congress, and it is therefore desirable to provide against a possible emergency which may arise after Congress has adjourned.

Since the report of the special board above referred to a part of the work proposed has been executed, and it is believed that the work will prove adequate for the protection of the lands in Imperial Valley against serious overflow during the present flood, which materially exceeds the average flood in volume, but as shown in the letter of the Secretary of the Interior the Colorado River since the date of the report of the special advisory board began and has continued to cave its banks, until the protecting levee of the Mexican side about 7 miles below the intake of the Imperial Canal is threatened, and apprehensions are aroused that the Colorado will again cut a deep channel into the Imperial Canal and flow again into Salton Sink with disastrous results to American lives and property. I request that the recommendation of the Secretary of the Interior be followed and that an appropriation of $1,250,000 be made to meet any emergencies that may arise for the construction of levees and revetments along the Colorado River and for the protection of property in the United States from damage by the flood waters of that river, and to be expended in whole or in part for the purposes stated and under the direction of the President of the United States. WM. H. TAFT. THE WHITE HOUSE, June 14, 1912.

EXHIBIT C.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, July 17, 1919.

MY DEAR MR. KINKAID: I acknowledge receipt of your letter of July 10, 1919, in which you state that the House Committee on Irrigation of Arid Lands desires for use in connection with the consideration of H. R. 6044, introduced by Mr. Kettner, for the relief of the Imperial Valley irrigation district, to be furnished with copies of any treaties, which this country may have with Mexico,

bearing upon the question of the use of waters taken from the Colorado River for the reclamation of lands in the respective countries, and also copies of any official correspondence pertaining to the subject matter. I am advised that in a telephonic conversation with the Solicitor's Office of the department, you have modified your request for information as to official correspondence, and have explained that your principal desire is to obtain copies of pertinent treaties, and that for the present you would be satisfied to receive merely brief reference to correspondence in the matter.

In reply, you are informed that the United States and Mexico have never concluded an agreement relative to the distribution and use of the waters of the Colorado River for irrigation purposes. In 1912 this Government proposed to the Government of Mexico the concluding of a convention providing for the appointment of a commission "to study, agree upon, and report the bases of distribution and appropriation of the waters of this river, the findings of the commission, if and when approved by the two Governments, to be embodied in a treaty. After an exchange between the Governments of several draft conventions, a form of convention seems to have been practically agreed upon in May, 1913, but, apparently because of the strained relations between this Government and the so-called Huerta administration in Mexico, the convention was never signed, and the matter has since been in abeyance.

As having some possible bearing upon this question, in which your committee is interested, I inclose herewith copies of the following treaties between the United States and Mexico:

The treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo of 1848, inviting attention to the provisions of articles 5, 6, and 7.

The treaty of 1853, known as the Gadsden treaty, inviting attention to the provisions of articles 1 and 4.

The boundary convention of 1884.

The boundary convention of 1889, together with the conventions of 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, extending the provisions of the said convention of 1889.

As of further interest to your committee there is also inclosed herewith a copy of a note from the Mexican Embassy, dated November 27, 1901, in which complaint is made of the alleged diversion of water from the Colorado River by the Imperial Canal system, of Los Angeles, Calif. It will be observed that this complaint is based on alleged contravention of the provisions of the said treaties of 1848 and 1853. The department's records appear to show that this complaint was communicated to the Attorney General, and that the conditions tnerem complained of formed the basis or a report made by Mr. Marsden C. Burch, a special attorney of the Department of Justice, which report was forwarded to this department by the Department of Justice on September 28, 1903, with the suggestion that because of the nature and bearings of the subject thereof, and because of the interest of various departments of the Government in that subject, it might be desirable to print the report for the information and use of the departments concerned. Accordingly the report was transmitted to the Director of the Geological Survey on October 14, 1903, with the statement that it was so transmitted because the subject thereof appeared to be connected with the work of his bureau and in the hope that he might find it desirable to print it for the information and use of the departments concerned. The Director of the Geological Survey replied, on October 17, 1903, that it was proposed to embody the report in the Second Annual Report of the Reclamation Service. I am, my dear Mr. Kinkaid,

Sincerely, yours,

FRANK L. POLK, Acting Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

66

EMBASSY OF MEXICO,
November 27, 1901.

MOST EXCELLENT SIR: My Government is in receipt of reports according to which a concern styled Imperial Canal System," of Los Angeles. Calif., is now conducting works tending to divert the waters of the Colorado River and to convey them to the arid lands in the southern part of the State of California, excavating machines have been set up to cut canals through the said lands, in

which sowing has already begun and dwelling houses are in course of construction. It is feared, with foundation, that these canalization works will bring about a change in the course or the complete exhaustion of the Colorado River to the serious injury, which is easily understood, of the Mexican territory and the inhabitants thereof in the region the said river runs through from the boundary of your country to its mouth, on the Cortes Sea.

Mr. Government holds the works in which the Imperial Canal System is engaged to be in contravention of the stipulations set forth in Article IV of the boundary treaty between the two Republics concluded in the year 1853 and those on the same point of the preceding treaty signed in 1848, which remained operative under the later treaty, and, therefore, has instructed me to denounce the wrong in question to your excellency and to ask that such steps as may be necessary to restrain it be taken.

Which complying with the instructions on which this note is based, it is an honor for me to reiterate to your excellency the assurances of my highest consideration.

To His Excellency JOHN HAY.

M'DE ASPIROZ.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE MEXICAN REPUBLICPEACE, FRIENDSHIP, LIMITS, AND SETTLEMENT.

[Signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, Feb. 2, 1848; ratification advised, with amendments, by the Senate, Mar. 10, 1848; ratified by the President of the United States, Mar. 16, 1848; ratified by the President of Mexico, May 30, 1848; ratifications exchanged at Querétaro, May 30, 1848; proclaimed July 4, 1848.]

ART. V. The boundary line between the two Republics shall commence in the Gulf of Mexico, 3 leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, otherwise called Rio Bravo del Norte, or opposite the mouth of its deepest branch, if it should have more than one branch emptying directly into the sea; from thence up the middle of that river, following the deepest channel, where it has more than one, to the point where it strikes the southern boundary of New Mexico; thence westwardly along the whole southern boundary of New Mexico (which runs north of the town called Paso) to its western termination; thence northward along the western line of New Mexico until it intersects the first branch of the River Gila (or if it should not intersect any branch of that river, then to the point on the said line nearest to such branch, and thence in a direct line to the same); thence down the middle of the said branch and of the said river until it empties into the Rio Colorado; thence across the Rio Colorado, following the division line between Upper and Lower California, to the Pacific Ocean.

The southern and western limits of New Mexico, mentioned in this article, are those laid down in the map entitled Map of the United Mexican States, as organized and defined by various acts of the Congress of said Republic, and constructed according to the best authorities. Revised edition. Published at New York in 1847 by J. Disturnell." Of which map a copy is added to this treaty, bearing the signatures and seals of the undersigned plenipotentiaries. And in order to preclude all difficulty in tracing upon the ground the limit separating Upper from Lower California, it is agreed that the said limit shall consist of a straight line drawn from the middle of the Rio Gila where it unites with the Colorado to a point on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, distant 1 marine league due south of the southernmost point of the port of San Diego, according to the plan of said port made in the year 1782 by Don Juan Pantoja, second sailing master of the Spanish fleet, and published at Madrid in the year 1802 in the atlas to the voyage of the schooners Sutil and Mericana, of which plan a copy is hereunto added, signed and sealed by the respective plenipotentiaries.

In order to designate the boundary line with due precision upon authorative maps and to establish upon the ground landmarks which shall show the limits of both Republics, as described in the present article, the two Governments shall each appoint a commissioner and a surveyor, who, before the expiration of one year from the date of exchange of ratifications of this treaty, shall meet at the port of San Diego and proceed to run and mark the said boundary in its whole course to the mouth of the Rio Bravo del Norte. They shall keep journals and make out plans of their operations; and the result,

agreed upon by them, shall be deemed a part of this treaty and shall have the same force as if it were inserted therein. The two Governments will amicably agree regarding what may be necessary to these persons, and also as to their respective escorts, should such be necessary.

The boundary line established by this article shall be religiously respected by each of the two Republics, and no change shall ever be made therein, except by the express and free consent of both nations lawfully given by the General Government of each, in conformity with its own constitution.

ART. VI. The vessels and citizens of the United States shall, in all time, have a free and uninterrupted passage by the Gulf of California, and by the River Colorado below its confluence with the Gila, to and from their possessions situated north of the boundary line defined in the preceding article; it being understood that this passage is to be by navigating the Gulf of California and the River Colorado, and not by land, without the express consent of the Mexican Government.

If, by the examinations which may be made, it should be ascertained to be practicable and advantageous to construct a road, canal, or railway which should, in whole or in part, run upon the River Gila, or upon its right or its left bank, within the space of 1 marine league from either margin of the river, the Governments of both Republics will form an agreement regarding its construction, in order that it may serve equally for the use and advantage of both countries.

ART. VII. The River Gila, and the part of the Rio Brava del Norte lying below the southern boundary of New Mexico, being, agreeably to the fifth article, divided in the middle between the two Republics, the navigation of the Gila and of the Bravo below said boundary shall be free and common to the vessels and citizens of both countries; and neither shall, without the consent of the other, construct any work that may impede or interrupt, in whole or in part, the exercise this right; not even for the purpose of favoring new methods of navigation. Nor shall any tax or contribution, under any denomination or title, be levied upon vessels or persons navigating the same, or upon merchandise or effects transported thereon, except in the case of landing upon one of their shores. If, for the purpose of making the said rivers navigable, or for maintaining them in such state, it should be necessary or advantageous to establish any tax or contribution, this shall not be done without the consent of both Governments.

The stipulations contained in the present article shall not impair the territorial rights of either Republic within its established limits.

TREATY BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE MEXICAN REPUBLIC RELATIVE TO BOUNDARY LINE, TRANSIT OF PERSONS, ETC., ACROSS THE ISTHMUS OF TEHUANTEPEC.

[Dated at the City of Mexico, Dec. 30, 1853; ratified by the President of the United States, June 29, 1854; ratifications exchanged at Washington, June 30, 1854; proclaimed June 30, 1854.]

ARTICLE 1. The Mexican Republic agrees to designate the following as her true limits with the United States for the future, retaining the same dividing line between the two Californias as already defined and established according to the fifth article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the limits between the two Republics shall be as follows: Beginning in the Gulf of Mexico 3 leagues from land, opposite the mouth of the Rio Grande, as provided in the fifth article of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thence as defined in the said article, up the middle of that river to the point where the parallel of 31° 47' north latitude crosses the same, thence due west 100 miles, thence south to the parallel of 31° 20' north latitude, thence along the said parallel of 31° 20′ to the one hundred and eleventh meridian of longitude west of Greenwich, thence in a straight line to a point on the Colorado River 20 English miles below the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, thence up the middle of the said River Colorado until it intersects the present line between the United States and Mexico.

For the performance of this portion of the treaty each of the two Governments shall nominate one commissioner, to the end that, by common consent, the two thus nominated having met in the city of Paseo del Norte, three months after the exchange of the ratifications of this treaty, may proceed to survey and mark out upon the land the dividing line stipulated by this article, where it shall not have already been surveyed and established by the mixed commission according to