Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part II
No. 788.
Mr. Bragg
to Mr. Bayard.
Mexico, May 8, 1888. (Received May 15.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith the text in Spanish and French, with English translation, of the Franco-Mexican treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, ratified in this capital on the 14th ultimo, and just published in the Diario Oficial. As you will see, the treaty is to remain in force until February 1, 1892, with the privilege of indefinite renewal under certain circumstances.
I am, etc.,
Treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation between Mexico and France.
Section for Europe, Asia, and America,
Mexico April 20, 1888.
The President of the Republic has seen fit to direct to me the following decree:
Porfirio Diaz, President of the United Mexican States, to all the inhabitants of the same, know ye:
That upon the twenty-seventh day of November, of the year one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six, a treaty was concluded and signed between the United Mexican States and the French Republic, by means of plenipotentiaries duly empowered thereto, and which treaty, in form and tenor, was as follows, to wit:
The President of the United Mexican States and the President of the French Republic, alike desirous to maintain the cordial relations subsisting between the two countries; to strengthen, if possible, their ties of friendship, and to develop the commercial intercourse of their respective citizens, have determined to establish a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation upon a basis of equitable reciprocity, and to that effect have appointed their respective plenipotentiaries, to wit:
- The President of the United Mexican States: Honorable Don Genaro Raigosa, senator of the Republic, and
- The President of the French Republic, M. Gaétan Partiot, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the French Republic in Mexico, Knight of the Legion of Honor, officer of Public Instruction of France, of the Grand Cross of Naval Merit of Spain, etc., etc.,
Who, after having compared and exchanged their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles:
Art. 1. There shall be perpetual peace and amity between the United Mexican States upon the one hand and the French Republic upon the other, and between their respective citizens, without distinction of persons or places.
Art. 2. There shall be, reciprocally, full and complete liberty of commerce and of navigation extended to the citizens and the shipping of the high contracting parties in all the cities, ports, rivers, and any places whatsoever of the two States, or of their dependencies, the entrance to which is now, or may be hereafter, permitted to the subjects and the shipping of any other foreign power.
Mexicans in France and the French in Mexico shall reciprocally be free to enter and reside in any part of the said states and dependencies, respectively, and, to that end, shall enjoy, in their persons and property, the same protection and security accorded to the natives thereof.
[Page 1193]Throughout the extent of the two states they shall be permitted to follow industrial pursuits; carry on commerce, either by wholesale or retail; lease, rent, or hold in possession, houses, warehouses, establishments or lands which may be necessary to them; engage in the transportation of merchandise and of specie, and receive consignments from the interior as well as from abroad, paying the duties and licenses established by the laws in force in the country of their residence, and which are binding upon the citizens of the same.
They shall, in matters of purchase and sale, be equally at liberty to stipulate and to fix the market value of the merchandise, effects, and goods of any kind whatsoever imported as well as exported, those sold at home as well as such as may be designed for purposes of exportation; subject always to the laws, usages, and statutes of the two countries respectively.
They may negotiate and conduct their business affairs directly, or through representatives or agents duly empowered thereto, either in the sale or purchase of their own goods, effects, or merchandise, under their own customs manifest, or in the loading, unloading, and clearance of their ships. Finally they shall not be subject to other charges, fees, duties, or imposts than those collected from the native citizens.
The citizens of either of the high contracting parties shall enjoy, within the territory of the other, the same privileges held by natives touching patents, trade-marks, labels, and sketches. As regards copyright; the citizens of each of the high contracting parties shall, within the territory of the other, enjoy the most favored nation treatment.
Art. 3. The citizens of the two nations shall enjoy, within each other’s territory, the most complete and constant protection for their persons and property. They may, in all the grades of tribunals of justice, and under the entire scope of jurisdiction, as denned by the laws, institute proceedings in defence and prosecution of their rights. They shall be permitted to engage lawyers, counsel, or agents of any class whatsoever, whom they may elect to represent them and to act in their place and stead, all in accordance with the laws of the land; they sliall also, in this connection, enjoy the same rights and privileges which are, or may be, granted to native citizens, and the enjoyment of such privileges and rights shall impose upon both like conditions for compliance.
Art. 4. Mexicans in France and the French in Mexico shall enjoy the benefits of legal counsel in conformity with the laws of the land wherein legal assistance ig sought on grounds of indigency.
Nevertheless, the fact and state of poverty plead under the formalities set up by those laws shall be further accredited before the competent authorities of the native country of the petitioner, and, after being duly authenticated and legalized by the diplomatic or consular agent of the other country, shall be transmitted through the Government of the petitioner.
Art. 5. Mexicans in France and the French in Mexico shall possess, in common with native citizens, the right to acquire, hold, and convey, by succession, will or testament, donation, or in any other manner whatsoever, personal property located in the respective states; and shall not be obliged to pay other or higher duties or imposts of succession or disposal than those levied, in like cases, upon the citizens of the power in which they may reside.
Touching the acquisition of real estate, the French in Mexico and Mexicans in France shall be treated as the citizens of the most favored nation.
Art. 6. The succession of personal estates shall be subject to the laws of the land wherein such property is found, and the courts of that country shall have exclusive jurisdiction upon all points of process and suit brought about thereby.
All questions pertaining to right of succession of real estate properties lying within either state, and belonging to the citizen of the other state, whether such citizen at the time of his decease were a resident or merely transient therein, shall be adjudged by the authorities or courts of the country wherein said real property be found, but in accordance with the legislation of the law of the land of the deceased.
Art. 7. Mexicans in France and the French in Mexico shall be exempt from all personal service either in the army or the navy, or in national guards or militia, and shall be likewise exempt from war levies and from forced loans in every case, save where such requisitions, levies, or loans be liens upon realty in the land itself, in which event they shall contribute alike with the native citizens. In all other cases they may not be forced, either in their personal or real properties, to pay other charges or imposts than those binding upon the native citizens or upon the citizens of the most favored nation.
It is hereby stipulated that whoever requires the application of the closing part of this article may select either of the two treatments which best suit him.
Art. 8. Ships, cargoes, merchandise, or goods belonging to citizens of either state can not respectively be seized or held for the purposes of any military expedition, nor for any other purpose of public service without a prior indemnity being agreed upon by the interested parties, which shall be fixed and paid, and shall be full and [Page 1194] sufficient for all demands in lieu of losses or damages occasioned by the service thus undertaken.
Art. 9. The citizens of each of the contracting parties shall, within the territory of the other, enjoy the most perfect liberty of conscience, and shall be allowed the free exercise of their worship, according to the laws and the constitution of the land.
Art. 10. For the purpose of diminishing the evils attendant upon war, it is hereby agreed that if hereafter the peaceful relations of the two states should unfortunately become disturbed, the citizens of each, resident within the cities, ports, and territories of the other, and who therein are engaged in commercial pursuits or in the exercise of any other profession, shall be permitted to remain in their place of residence, and to continue in their business, provided always that they do not commit any violation of the laws of the land. In case their conduct should cause them to forfeit that privilege, and when the respective Governments deem it necessary to expel them from their territories, the former shall grant the latter a sufficient term within which to arrange their affairs.
In no case of war or of conflict between the two nations shall the goods or property of any kind whatsoever, belonging to citizens of the foreign state, be subject to search or embargo, or any other charges and imposts binding upon native citizens. Likewise during time of war, the private debts of foreign citizens, as well as the Government bonds and shares of banking and other institutions held by them, shall not be subject to search or confiscation, to the injury or detriment of the citizens respectively and to the benefit of the country in which such citizens reside.
Art. 11. The contracting parties agree to grant to envoys, ministers, and public agents the same exemptions, favors, and immunities which the envoys, ministers, and public agents of the most favored nation do now, or may hereafter, enjoy.
The aforesaid contracting parties, desirous of avoiding all that might in any wise disturb their mutually friendly relations, do agree that their diplomatic representatives shall not intervene officially, save to obtain when practicable a pacific arrangement regarding the complaints and claims of private parties, when such complaints have been submitted to the action of the courts, unless it be in the event of a denial of justice, of delay in the administration thereof, contrary to law or usage, or in the case of lack of execution of legally binding sentences, or, finally, whenever, despite all legal recourse, there may have been manifest violation of treaties obligatory upon both contracting parties, or of the rules of international law, public or private, generally accepted by civilized nations.
It is also further agreed between both contracting parties that their respective Governments, save in cases of neglect or of lack of vigilance on the part of the authorities of the land and their agents, shall not be reciprocally responsible for the damages, injuries, or exactions which the citizens of one may suffer within the territory of the other on account of insurgents, insurrections, or civil war, or because of savage tribes or bands which are beyond the authority and power of the Government.
Art. 12. The duties of importation in the United Mexican States upon the produce of the soil or of the industry of France, and in the French Republic upon the produce of the soil or of the industry of Mexico, shall not be in excess of or differ from the import duties levied upon like products of the most favored nation.
The same principle shall be observed with regard to duties on exportation.
There shall be no restriction placed upon importation or exportation reciprocally engaged in by both countries, unless it be applied to other nations, the exception to the above rule being only in case of the avoiding of epizootical epidemics, or of loss of crops, or in the event of war.
Art. 13. Merchandise of all classes, coming from one state or leaving it, is reciprocally exempted in the other state from all transit duties, save in case such duties are imposed upon the other nations.
Nevertheless, the special legislation of each state shall be respected as regards articles the transit of which is or may be prohibited; and the high contracting parties reserve to themselves the right to subject to special regulations the transfer of arms and munitions of war.
Art. 14. The two contracting parties do severally engage not to grant to the subjects of any other power, in navigation or in commerce, any privilege, favor, or immunity, be these what they may, which shall not be, at once, and during the time of such concession, extended to the commerce and navigation of each other; and each shall reciprocally enjoy all the privileges, immunities, and favors which may, or shall, have been conceded to any other nation.
Art. 15. In whatever relates to harbor patrols, and to the loading or unloading of ships, or to the safe-keeping of merchandise and effects, the citizens of both powers shall be subject to local laws and regulations.
Touching Mexican ports, in the above category are included the laws and regulations issued, or to be hereafter issued, by the Federal Government, as well as the provisions of the local authorities, within the limits of the jurisdiction of the sanitary police.
[Page 1195]The contracting parties agree to consider boundaries of their territory along their respective coasts, at a distance of twenty kilometers, reckoningfro in the lowest tide-mark. This rule shall be, however, applicable alone to the matter of customs search, the execution of customs ordinances and preventive measures against smuggling; but it shall by no means apply in all other questions springing from international maritime law.
It is likewise agreed that neither of the contracting parties shall apply to the ships of the other contracting party the above designated extension of territorial limits save in case the same contracting party proceed in like manner with respect to the shipping of other nations with whom it may have treaties of commerce and navigation.
Art. 16. Mexican vessels which enter the ports of France, and French vessels which enter the ports of Mexico, with cargo or in ballast, shall not pay other nor higher charges on account of tonnage, light, or harbor dues, pilotage, salvage, or such as affect the hull, than those which are, or hereafter may be, obligatory upon the ships of the most favored nation.
With respect to local charges and treatment, such as the anchorage of vessels, their unloading and loading, as well as the fees and imposts of all kinds, in ports, anchorage-grounds, docks, roads, inlets, and rivers of both countries, and, in general, all the formalities and provisions to which merchant marine, with their crew, may be subject, all the privileges, favors, and immunities which are, or which may hereafter be, conceded to the vessels of the most favored nation, and to their imported and exported merchandise, shall be like wise granted to the vessels of the other state, and to the imports and exports carried in the vessels of said state.
Art. 17. The following shall be exempt from tonnage, harbor, and clearance dues, but not from pilotage charges:
- First. Vessels which, hailing from any port, enter and leave in ballast.
- Second. Vessels which, having passed from one port of either state to another or other ports of the same state, be it to discharge all or part of their cargo, or to arrange and complete their cargo, may furnish guaranties of having paid the duties on the same.
- Third. Steamers dedicated to the mail service and to the carrying of passengers and baggage, provided they transact no business.
- Fourth. Vessels which enter a port voluntarily or as forced arrivals, and which depart without transacting any business.
Nevertheless, with regard to the vessels mentioned in the two preceding counts, the captains of the same shall be obliged, within the term of thirty-six hours after their admission to customs supervision, to file in the custom-house a bond, satisfactory to the authorities of the same, to cover the total charges for tonnage, harbor, and clearance dues, in the event that the vessels in question should effect any business transaction.
In cases of forced arrival, business transactions shall not include the unloading and reloading of merchandise for the repair of vessels, or for their disinfection during a quarantine; the transfer of effects from one vessel to another, in case either becomes incapacitated for purposes of navigation; the necessary expenses to revictual for the crew, and, with the due authorization of the custom-house, the sale of damaged effects.
Art. 18. Navigation dues, tonnage, and other charges, which are collectable in proportion to the capacity of vessels, should be collected from French vessels, in the ports of the United Mexican States, according to the register of the vessel.
Similar process is to be followed respecting Mexican vessels in the ports of France.
Art. 19. The provisions of this treaty are not applicable to shore or coasting trade, which is subject to the respective legislation of both contracting states.
Notwithstanding, Mexican vessels in France and French vessels in the United Mexican States may unload part of their cargo at the first port touched, and proceed with the rest to other ports of the same state, either for the purpose of discharging therein the freight brought therefor or to complete thereat their return cargo, and may not, therefore, pay in each port other nor higher duties than those which in like circumstances are paid by the most favored nation.
Art. 20. Whatever relates to fisheries (which are subject to the legislation of each of the contracting states) is likewise exempt from the workings of this treaty.
Art. 21. Whenever the citizens of either of the contracting parties shall be forced by stress of weather, or by any other cause, to seek refuge with their vessels in the ports, bays, rivers, or territories of the other contracting party, they shall be received and treated with humanity, with the precautions which may be deemed expedient on the part of the Government interested to avoid fraud. They shall also be granted all favor and protection for repairing their vessels, procuring provisions, and placing themselves in a situation to continue their voyage without obstacle or hindrance of any kind.
Within the territory of each of the contracting parties, merchant ships of both, the [Page 1196] crews of which, by reason of sickness or otherwise, are incomplete, may enlist the sailors needful for the further continuance of their voyage, in accordance, however, with local laws and regulations, and under the condition that the enlistment of the sailors shall be wholly voluntary upon the part of the latter.
Art. 22. When any vessel belonging to either of the contracting parties shall be wrecked, foundered, or shall suffer any damage on the coasts or within the dominions of the other there shall be given to it all the assistance and protection which is customary with the vessels of the nation where the damage happens. In case of necessity they shall be permitted to unload the said vessel of its merchandise, with the precautions which the Government interested may deem expedient to avoid fraud, nor shall the merchandise and other effects saved pay duties or sustain imposts of any class whatsoever, unless the said merchandise and effects are designed for consumption in the interior, in which case they shall be subject to the treatment accorded in like circumstances, to the most favored nation.
Art. 23. Ships belonging to citizens of either country shall be regarded as Mexican in France and French in Mexico, whenever they travel under the respective flags, and are carriers of their respective ship-registers, and are provided with the sets of documents required by the laws of each state as proof of the nationality of merchant vessels.
Art. 24. Ships of war belonging to either of the two powers may enter and remain in those ports of the other power the entrance to which is accorded to the war vessels of the most favored nation, and may repair damages therein; they shall also be there subject to the same honors, advantages, privileges, and exemptions enjoyed by the most favored nation.
Art. 25. Vessels charged with postal service, and the property either of the state or of companies subsidized by one of the two states, can not be swerved from their course, nor be subject to capture, detention, embargo, or sequestration.
Art. 26. Mexican citizens shall within French colonies and possessions enjoy the same rights and privileges and the same liberty of commerce and navigation as that conceded to the citizens as subjects of the most favored nation; and, reciprocally, the inhabitants of the French colonies and possessions shall enjoy, in all their extent, the same rights and privileges and the game liberty of commerce and of navigation as are by this treaty granted within the United Mexican States to the French to their commerce and their ships.
Art. 27. Pending the celebration of a consular convention, the two high contracting parties do hereby agree that their consuls, vice-consuls, and consular agents shall enjoy, respectively, the same favors, privileges, and immunities now granted or which may hereafter be granted to the consuls, vice-consuls, and consular agents of the most favored nation.
Art. 28. The provisions of this treaty apply to the Algerian possessions.
Art. 29. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged, upon the due fulfillment of the formalities assigned under the constitutional legislation of the contracting states.
It shall be in force from the day of the exchange of said ratifications until the 1st of February, 1892, and shall be promulgated within two months from the date.
In case neither of the two high contracting parties shall have given notice to the other one year prior to the 1st of February, 1892, of its intention to terminate the same, this treaty shall remain and be in force for one year more after notice is given by either of the high contracting parties terminating it.
The high contracting parties reserve, by mutual consent, the right to ingraft upon this treaty such modifications as may not be in antagonism with their spirit and principles, and the utility of which shall have been demonstrateid by experience.
In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed and sealed these presents.
That the preceding treaty was approved by the senate of the United Mexican States on the thirteenth day of December, of the same year, one thousand eight hundred and eighty-six.
That, therefore, in the exercise of the faculty conferred upon me by the X section of the eighty-fifth article of the federal constitution, I have hereby approved, ratified, and confirmed said treaty on the fifth day of March of this present year.
That, having been likewise approved by the French Chambers, this treaty was ratified by the President of that Republic on the seventeenth day of the aforesaid month of March;
And that the ratifications were exchanged in this capital upon the fourteenth day of this month.
[Page 1197]I therefore order that the same he printed, published, and that it be duly observed-Palace of the Federal Government, Mexico, April 17, 1888.
To Hon. Ignacio Mariscal,
Secretary of State and
of the Department of Foreign Affairs.
I communicate, etc.,