Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/282

264 of international intercourse, for it is only on the basis of the security of property, validly possessed under the laws existing at the time of its acquisition, that commercial transactions between the peoples of two countries and the conduct of activities in helpful cooperation are possible. . ..

This question is vital because of the provisions inserted in the Mexican Constitution promulgated in 1917. If these provisions are to be put into effect retroactively, the properties of American citizens will be confiscated on a great scale. This would constitute an international wrong of the gravest character and this Government could not submit to its accomplishment. If it be said that this wrong is not intended, and that the Constitution of Mexico of 1917 will not be construed to permit, or enforced so as to effect, confiscation, then it is important that this should be made clear by guarantees in proper form. The provisions of the Constitution and the Executive decrees which have been formulated with confiscatory purposes make it obviously necessary that the purposes of Mexico should be definitely set forth.

The oil dispute is not only important in itself, but because it reveals the general attitude the governments that have followed the revolution have shown toward foreigners and foreign capital. The provisions concerning general land ownership might be given retroactive effect, it appears, if the government were allowed to establish that standard as to any other sort of property. The holding of land might be made conditional on the payment of taxes in the forms of "rents" and "royalties." A new registry law might be framed in a way to cut off the right of the foreign owner to appeal to his home government or the same end might be reached by the requirement of a license to operate the land. Manufacturing enterprises and public utilities might be