The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951 Page: 423
544 p. : ill., ports., maps. (some col.) ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Rio Grande Boundary Dispute
parently lost interest in the limited scope of the enterprise and
pressed for a more comprehensive program, explaining that the
Department of State
has arrived at the conclusion that instead of proceeding at this time
to rectify the channel of the river for the few miles immediately
below El Paso, it would be desirable to endeavor to come to an
agreement with the Mexican Government upon a general plan for
the rectification of the channel as far down as Fort Quitman ... or
to the entrance to the Box Cafion.41
An encouraging report from the boundary commission re-
vealed that a possible settlement of the dispute with Mexico
was in the offing. A mutual agreement had been reached deter-
mining the title to forty-two tracts of land along the Texas border
comprising four thousand acres which had become detached from
one country or the other by the natural action of the stream.42
On December 21, 1928, the International Boundary Commission
released a report recommending the engineering feasibility of
the preliminary plans for the stabilization of the boundary and
the rectification of the Rio Grande." Engineer Gustavo P. Ser-
rano, Mexican boundary commissioner, forwarded the report to
his government. After the Mexican government had perused its
contents, it authorized Ambassador Manuel C. Tellez to approve
the report with important reservations. The Mexican govern-
ment only favored a study of the "engineering and construction
problems pertinent to the protection against floods of the lands
on either side of the bank without including problems of an
international character;" whereas the boundary commission had
seen fit to include "the stabilization of the dividing line and
the rectification of the Rio Bravo.""4 Secretary of State Henry
L. Stimson replied that the Department of State favored a plan
which not only included the prevention of further disastrous
floods in the El Paso-Juarez area but provided for "a river chan-
nel and boundary line in such location that all lands to the North
41Joseph C. Grew to Schoenfield, Sept. 2o, 1926, ibid., 711.
42George A. Finch, "Boundary Dispute with Mexico," American Journal of
International Law, XXII (1928), 643; New York Times, June 19, 1928, 12:5.
4.Minute No. 111, International Boundary Commission, United States and Mex-
ico, December 21, 1928, in Foreign Relations, 1929, III, 473-
44Tellez to Kellogg, February 6, 1929, in ibid., 473-474.423
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 54, July 1950 - April, 1951, periodical, 1951; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101133/m1/571/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.