§ Mr. BEAUMONTasked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any progress has been made by the Mexican Government to terminate their 17-yearold default in their obligations to British investors who entrusted their savings to the Mexican Government; and whether the Mexican legislative authorities have yet ratified the recent debt agreement?
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Mr. A. HENDERSONThe answer to the first part of the question is in the affirmative. According to an official statement issued by the Mexican Government at the end of January, it appears that, as the result of further negotiations between the Government and the International Committee of Bankers, on which the British bondholders are represented, an agreement was signed on 29th January by the Mexican Minister of Finance and Mr. Thomas W. Lamont, which is supplementary to that concluded on 25th July, 1930. The supplementary agreement, which must be approved by the Mexican Congress, provides that the annual payments for 1931 and 1932 which, under the agreement of July, 1930, it was contemplated should be made in dollars, may be provisionally made in silver coin of the existing Mexican currency at the rate of exchange prevailing on 25th July last. The annual payment for 1931 totals, in the case of the direct debt, $7,500,000 (United States), and in that of the railway debt, $5,625,000 (United States). The payments for 1932 are $13,000,000 and $5,625,000, respectively. The whole of these amounts in silver coin are to be deposited in the Bank of the City of Mexico, to be totally immobilised during the validity of the supplementary agreement. For their part, the International Committee of Bankers will place at the disposal of the Commission for the Regulation of Exchange, the sum of $5,000,000 (United States), which the Mexican Government deposited on 25th August last as part liquidation of the first annual payment for the service of interest amortisation. The product of the sale of the said $5,000,000 (United States) in silver shall be deposited in the National Bank of Mexico, and shall also be totally immobilised. If, in the course of 1931 and 1932, the exchange position shall become stable at the normal rate, that is, at a rate more or less equivalent to that prevailing on 25th July, 1930, the Mexican Government and the International Committee of Bankers will make the necessary arrangements for annual payments in dollars. It is believed by the Mexican Government that these arrangements will contribute to the stabilisation of the Mexican currency and exchange.