412.11 (41) Agreement/16

Memorandum by the Assistant Chief of the Division of the American Republics (Bursley) to the Under Secretary of State (Welles)

Mr. Welles: There are attached copies of the redraft of the informal memorandum for the Mexican Ambassador.89

In drafting paragraph no. 8 regarding the alternative oil plan, I have purposely been vague with a view to avoiding too sudden precipitation of the question of some modified form of company operation. However, if you prefer, we can easily change the memorandum by replacing the phrase “certain expert services” with “an acceptable modified form of company operation”.

I note that during my absence the question of settlement of the railway debt was brought into the discussions (paragraph 11 (a)). Unless the reference at the end of paragraph 10, “debt settlement”, is to the Mexican public debt, I think it might be advisable to insert reference to the public debt in paragraph 11 (a), in view of the possibility that it might be held we were discriminating between the Railway bondholders and the holders of bonds in the public debt.

Herbert S. Bursley
  1. Infra.