Attachment 1, Page 2

Enclosure No. 1 Airgram #______ Dated._________ Mexico, D.F. CONFIDENTIAL 5) From the date of the award to the present the two Governments on various occasions attempted without success to settle the Chamizal controversy. On June 30, 1962, President Kennedy and President Lopez Mateos announced their agreement to instruct their executive agencies to recomment a complete solution to the Chamizal problem which, without prejudice to their juriducial positions, took into account the entire history of this tract. C. A tract of land under Mexican jurisdiction, known as Cordova Island, with an area of 386 acres, is also to the north of the present channel of the Rio Grande. The location of this tract north of the river resulted from an artificial cut made in the 1899 by common agreement between the two Governments so as to reduce the dangers of floods. Cordova Island is contiguous to the Chamizal tract. Its precise location and peculiar formation are shown on the attached map. D. For either country, it is undesirab;e to have a portion of its territory on the opposite band of the Rio Grande. In fact, these instances of physical isolation are obstacles to border-control measures and the best utilization of the detached areas. These problems are particularly serious in the case of Cordova Island, because it is an area the urbanization of which under present conditions would be unsatisfactory and of doubtful benefit since it is practically isolated from MExican territory and as an enclave in El Paso constitutes an obstacle to the logical development of that City. E. According to the calculations made by the Government of Mexico, the part of the Cjamizal to which it has international title has an area of approximately 437 acres. The transfer to Mexico of the portion of the Chamizal which it claims, without relocation of the channel of the Rio Grande, could not by itself be considered as the complete solution called for byb the Joint Communique of June 30, 1962, because a portion of territory under Mexican ConfidentialEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 9,253,376 byte