811.24596/7–3048: Airgram
The Chargé in the Philippines (Lockett) to the Secretary of State
A–337. Text contained Deptel 836 [835] July 1 was transmitted to FonOff as Embassy note 1637, July 2. Acknowledgment dated July 27 reads as follows:
“The Department of Foreign Affairs presents its compliments to the United States Embassy and has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Embassy’s note No. 1637 dated July 2, 1948, inviting attention to the provisions of the Act of the United States Congress providing for the independence of the Philippines known as the Tydings-McDuffie Act (Act of March 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 456), and specifically to section 10(b) of that statute which authorizes and empowers the President of the United States to enter into negotiations with the Philippine Government, not later than two years after the proclamation recognizing the independence of the Philippines, for the adjustment and settlement of all questions relating to naval reservations and fueling stations of the United States in the Philippines.
“The subject is now under study and the Department will communicate again with the Embassy as soon as the Philippine Government is ready to enter into the negotiation.”
Although the acknowledgment does not state that the Philippine Government construes the Embassy’s note “and previous arrangements which have been made by our Governments regarding this subject as entering into negotiations for the settlement of all such questions”, the Embassy believes that the wording of the last paragraph is of no special significance and merely represents the failure of the drafting officer concerned to grasp the purpose of the Embassy’s note of July 2.