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if the bridges are upon the dividing line recognized in the treaties; and thus it was made known to the Government of the United States, to avoid all future misunderstanding whatever in the matter.

Third. That article 4 of the first of the mentioned treaties on which it has been erroneously desired to base the tracing of said line is inapplicable to the case, through not authorizing a temporary but a definitive demarcation, in the opinion that the bridges are truly international, they having been constructed on the true boundaries determined by the rivers.

Fourth. That citizen Pedro Y. Garcia, having formally presented a claim, alleging that land called "El Chamisal," belonging to Juarez City, became joined to lands of the United States through a violent change in the course of the River Bravo, in order that it may be declared to belong still to Mexico, the commission must examine and decide that case, and, consequent upon the decision, not before, to settle the dividing line between Juarez City and El Paso, Tex.

For the reasons set forth, the President of the Republic has decreed that the temporary designation of the boundary line which has been made on the bridges referred to is not approved, and that this decision be notified to the International Boundary Commission by you and to the Government of the United States of America, through our legation at Washington, in order that it may consider null and void the demarcation referred to.

I renew to you, etc.,

MARISCAL.

FREE REENTRY OF CATTLE INTO THE UNITED STATES.

No. 169.]

Mr. Gresham to Mr. Gray.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 17, 1894.

SIR: I inclose for your information a copy of a joint resolution of Congress, approved the 15th instant, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to permit the owners of cattle and horses which have been removed into Mexico to bring the same thereafter into the United States before January 15 next without charge for import duties. I inclose, also, a copy of my note to the minister of Mexico here, asking him to bring the matter to the attention of his Government, so that by concurrent action the full benefit of the law (which expires January 14, 1895) may be enjoyed by those interested.

I am, etc.,

W. Q. GRESHAM.

[Enclosure.]

Mr. Gresham to Mr. Romero.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, January 17, 1894.

SIR: Referring to our recent conversation, I now have the honor to inclose for your fuller information a duly authenticated copy of a joint resolution of the Congress of the United States, approved by the President on the 15th instant, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to

permit the owners of cattle and horses transporting them into Mexico for grazing purposes to reimport the same into the United States at any time within twelve months from the date of the passage of the resolution.

I shall be much gratified if you will promptly bring the matter to the attention of the Mexican Government by telegraph or otherwise, as your judgment may determine best, to the end that by the concurrent action of Mexico the full benefit of the law, which by the third section of the resolution will expire January 14, 1895, may be enjoyed by those directly interested.

Accept, etc.,

W. Q. GRESHAM.

Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF MEXICO,

Washington, January 19, 1894. (Received January 19.)

MR. SECRETARY: To-day I had the honor to receive by mail your note of the 17th instant, with which you send me a certified copy of the decree (resolution) approved by the Congress of the United States and sanctioned by the President on the 15th instant, which authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to permit owners of cattle and horses in the United States to pass over into Mexico for the purpose of pasturing and to reimport them into the United States free of duties within twelve months from the date of the resolution, at the same time requesting me to communicate it by telegraph, or in some other manner, to my Government, to the end of obtaining its concurrence in order that those interested in this matter may enjoy the benefits which the resolution affords them.

In conformity with your wishes I to-day send by telegraph to the Mexican Government the recommendation which you make to me, and in due season I will communicate such reply as I receive.

Notwithstanding that, as I stated in our interview of the 13th instant, to which you refer in the note to which I reply, I did not regard the resolution in question as embracing any real reciprocity in favor of the Mexican stock raisers, I hope that the Government of Mexico, in order to aid the stock raisers of Texas as far as possible in their present difficult situation, will do whatever is within its competence to contribute to the accomplishment of the intentions of the Congress of the United States.

Be pleased to accept, etc.,

M. ROMERO.

Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF MEXICO,

Washington, March 8, 1894. (Received March 8.)

MY DEAR MR. GRESHAM: I have the honor to inform you that the Honorable Thomas M. Paschal, of Texas, having suggested to me to ask the Government of Mexico if it had come to any decision in regard

to the decree of the Congress of the United States, approved by the President on the 15th of January last, permitting the free reentry into Texas of cattle grazing in Mexico, I cabled the secretary of the treasury of the Government of Mexico and received from him a reply in which he tells me that, owing to the convention on this subject which was signed by both countries on July 11, 1888, being still before the Senate of Mexico, and owing to the opposition of the Mexican border stock raisers, it has not been possible to arrive at an immediate decision on the subject.

I am, etc.,

M. ROMERO.

Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF MEXICO,

Washington, March 16, 1894. (Received March 16.) MR. SECRETARY: I have the honor to forward to you, with reference to your note of the 17th of January last, copy of a note from Señor Mariscal, secretary of foreign relations of the United States of Mexico, dated City of Mexico, the 5th instant, which I received to-day, in which he communicates to me the reply of the ministry of Hacienda (treasury) to the efforts made in order that the Government of Mexico should determine what is proper with regard to the decree approved by the Congress of the United States on the said 15th of January to permit the reimportation, duty free, of Texan cattle that may pass to Mexican territory for pasture.

Accept, etc.,

M. ROMERO.

[Inclosure-Translation.]

Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Romero.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, OFFICE OF FOREIGN RELATIONS,

Mexico, March 5, 1894. The secretary of the treasury (de Hacienda) tells me in a communica tion dated the 2d instant, as follows:

Your polite notes of 2d, 20th, and 22d of January last have been received at this office, in which you are pleased to transmit copies of those of our minister at Washington relative to cattle that cross the frontier to pasture on our territory and concerning the passage of the draft of a law presented to the Congress of that nation by Mr. Thomas M. Paschal, one of its members.

In reply I have the honor to inform you that as there is still pending before the Senate a convention concluded in 1888 between Mexico and the United States for the reciprocal crossing of cattle from one country to the territory of the other, the President of the Republic does not consider it opportune to make any decision at present with regard to the decree approved by the American Congress on motion of the member, Mr. Thomas M. Paschal, because it would seem that the Executive was endeavoring to prejudge in some way an affair which the Senate has not found it convenient to take into consideration; thus the President thinks he should with all the more reason abstain from a determination in the matter, so marked is the opposition to that proposed convention by the inhabitants and representatives in the federal Congress of the frontier States, and on the other hand the same American citizens who initiated the said convention state that in May next will cease the reasons which serve as the basis of their claim.

I copy this for you, referring to your note No. 666 of the 19th January last.

I renew, etc.,
FR 94. -27

MARISCAL.

RECOVERY OF STRAYED OR STOLEN CATTLE.

Mr. Uhl to Mr. Gray.

No. 234.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, June 16, 1894.

SIR: I inclose herewith copy of a letter from Hon. T. M. Paschal, a member of Congress from Texas, covering communications from Mr. J. C. Loving, secretary of the Cattle Raisers' Association of that State, and Mr. Robert W. Prosser, relative to the unsuccessful efforts of the latter to recover a horse stolen from him and held by the Mexican authorities in Ciudad Porfirio Diaz.

Mr. Paschal has been informed that no treaty stipulation in regard to the recovery of straying or stolen stock exists between the United States and Mexico, and, in the absence of exceptional regulation of the matter, owners of such stock on either side of the border have the same access to the courts of the other country in substantiation of their claim to ownership as citizens of the country.

A convention on the subject was signed at Washington by Mr. Bayard and Mr. Romero June 11, 1888, and was ratified, with amendments, by the Senate of the United States on October 1, 1888. By the fifth article thereof it was stipulated that

When cattle belonging in one country have been stolen and driven by thieves to the territory of the other, and subsequently recovered by the proper authorities, they shall be held for return to their lawful owner when he shall appear, in which case no duty shall be payable, and no charges save for the keep of the cattle.

This convention has not yet been ratified by Mexico.

It is the Department's desire that you confer with the minister for foreign affairs, to the end of seeking a remedy for the state of things represented in the inclosed correspondence, and ascertaining the disposition of the Mexican Government in regard to the uncompleted convention of 1888.

In this connection I refer you to Department's instruction to your predecessor, No. 523, of May 25, 1891, and his reply, No. 657, of the 2d of the following mouth.

I am, etc.,

EDWIN F. UHL,

Acting Secretary.

THE BALDWIN CLAIM.

Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF MEXICO,

Washington, February 17, 1894. (Received February 19.)

MR. SECRETARY: Referring to the conversations which we have had in relation to the claim that has been laid before the U. S. Government by Mrs. Baldwin, wife of a citizen of the United States who was mur dered in Durango, Mexico, and to the efforts which have been made by the U. S. legation to induce the Mexican Government to pay an indemnity to that lady, I have the honor to apprise you that I have received

1 Not printed.

instructions from the Mexican Government to inform that of the United States that Mexico does not consider itself under obligations to pay any indemnity to Mrs. Baldwin on account of the death of her husband, because he was the victim of a common crime in which the Mexican authorities were in nowise concerned, and because the perpetrators of that crime have been tried and punished, whereby the obligations of the Government of Mexico in this case were fulfilled.

The condition, moreover, of the Mexican treasury, which has been occasioned by the great depreciation in the value of silver, renders any extra payment very difficult.

Nevertheless, in consideration of the reiterated requests which have been made by you, through me, in order that something may be paid to Mrs. Baldwin, the Government of Mexico has decided to offer, as an act of equity, which is not to establish a precedent, or to imply the recognition of any obligation toward Mrs. Baldwin, the payment to the U. S. minister in the City of Mexico of the sum of $3,000 at the expiration of three months, reckoned from the date of the conclusion of the arrangement with the U. S. Government, and the remainder, until the sum of $20,000 shall have been paid to the aforesaid officer, in twelve monthly installments of $1,416.66 each.

The Mexican Government proposes this arrangement, bearing in mind the fact that a similar one was approved in the case of the indemnity of $7,000 that was paid to Deputy Sheriff Shadrack White, who lost the use of one of his arms in an encounter which took place at Eagle Pass, Tex., on the 3d of March, 1888, between Texan police officers and Mexican soldiers who had come to that place, without authority, in pursuit of a deserter.

Be pleased to accept, etc.,

M. ROMERO.

Mr. Romero to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.[

LEGATION OF MEXICO,

Washington, March 8, 1894. (Received March 9.)

MR. SECRETARY: I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a note from Mr. Mariscal, dated City of Mexico, February 27, last, which removes the doubt left by his previous note as to the currency in which the indemnity to Mrs. Baldwin is offered.

Be pleased to accept, etc.,

M. ROMERO.

[Inclosure. Translation.]

Mr. Mariscal to Mr. Romero.

DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
Mexico, February 27, 1894.

I have taken note of the contents of your note No. 791, of the 17th instant, with the accompanying copy of your note to Mr. Gresham, relative to the offer of $20,000 on account of the claim of the widow of Baldwin.

In reply I have to say that this amount is in silver, that being the legal currency of Mexico, and that if it were in gold the amount would

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