LATIN AMERICA: Incident Closed

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In Mexico City and in Washington ten lengthy documents were released simultaneously last week. They consisted of the official correspondence between the U.S. and Mexico which has been going on in secret since early last winter concerning the new Mexican land and petroleum laws. Most of the documents released last week do not lend themselves to pertinent summary. The significant fact is that both governments appear to consider the subject closed, and the U.S. Administration has intimated throught "spokesmen" that it considers Mexico to have given sufficient assurances that the new laws are not "retroactive and confiscatory," as the U.S. at first protested that they were. It now remains to be seen whether U.S. property owners in Mexico will be leniently or harshly treated within the limit of the existing statutes. Upon such developments will depend the possible revamping of an issue technically defunct.