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THE WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON CONFIDENTIAL April 6, 1965 MEMORANDUM FOR: The Secretary of State The Secretary of the Interior The President has approved the proposed agreement with Mexico, which the Departments of State and Interior recommended, as the best attainable measures we could take now to settle the salinity problem. The Wellton-Mohawk problem is a special case, but it would be desirable to look at projected future operations on the Colorado River so that we will avoid the possibility of a future dispute with Mexico. We should consider whether projected future operations will serve the basic interests of the United States. The basic interests here involved are, of course, protection of the water rights of the United States and the maintenance of friendly relations with our nearest southern neighbor. The example of excellent relations with Mexico also has a bearing on our world posture. I know that some of the Basin States continue to be dissatisfied with the 1944 Water Treaty itself and believe that our policy should be conditioned by the fact that Mexico was guaranteed a quantity of water larger than it should have been given. I should think our best interests are served by carrying out in good faith the bargain made in 1944. I gather that the Mexican response to comments that the 1944 Treaty was a bad bargain for the United States has been that Mexico made bad bargains in 1848 and 1853. One of the conclusions that the two Departments have apparently reached, after more than three years of work on the Wellton-Mohawk problem, is that the United States has an obligation to act reasonably in conducting irrigation in the United States. In technical terms, this translates itself into a requirement that U. S. irrigation districts maintain approximate salt balance. This fairly well defines our legal view of the 1944 Water Treaty. On the other hand, Mexico has from the first held to the view that the Treaty divided the waters of the Colorado and that it was, therefore, entitled to the same treatment as users in the United States. In short, it asserts that the United States has no right to deliver all of the drainage water to Mexico, but should divide it proportionally among all the users on the lower Colorado. CONFIDENTIALEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 24 bit, 11,183,616 byte