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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 April 2017
The Treaty of Peace concluded in Paris between the United States and Spain on December 10, 1898, ending the Spanish-American war, provided in Article III that “Spain cedes to the United States the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands and comprehending the islands lying within the following lines…” In another treaty concluded between the same countries on November 7, 1900, it was provided in the Sole Article that
1 U. S. Treaty Series, No. 343.
2 U. S. Treaty Series, No. 344.
3 The Turtle and Mangsee Islands. The center of the Turtle Island group lies about 30 miles north of Sandakan, North Borneo, and about 175 miles west of Jolo Island, the southwesternmost province of the Philippines. The Mangsee Islands lie still farther north and west of the Turtles off the north coast of Borneo. The location of the lighthouse in dispute, Taganak Island, lies 20 miles northeast of Sandakan and 22 miles south of the center of the Turtle group.
4 In claiming title to the islands as successor to Spain, the United States said: “The title of Spain to the Sulu Archipelago, of which Cagayan and Subutu formed part, rests on historical facts and repeated acts of submission of the Sulu chiefs to the Crown of Spain, and the territorial limits of Spanish jurisdiction in that quarter are stated in general terms in the protocols signed between Great Britain, Germany, and Spain in 1877, 1885, and 1897, from which it appears that Spain relinquished in favor of Great Britain all claim of sovereignty over the territories of the mainland of Borneo which then belonged or had belonged in the past to the Sultan of Sulu, including therein the neighboring islands of Balambangan, Banguey, and Malawali, as well as those islands lying within a zone of 3 marine leagues along the coast, and which form part of the territories administered by the company styled British North Borneo Company, while as to the rest of the islands pertaining to her under the Suluan capitulations and submissions Spain reserved and was admitted to have sovereignty whether they were effectively occupied by Spain or not.” See letter of Secretary of State (Hay) to the British Ambassador, dated Dec. 10, 1904. Foreign Relations of the United States (1907), Part 1, p . 542.
5 Letter of the British Ambassador (Durand) to the Secretary of State, dated Sept. 29, 1905. Ibid.
6 U. S. Treaty Series, No. 856
7 Ibid.
8 Ibid.
9 On July 15. 1946, the British Government took over the Borneo sovereign rights from the British North Borneo Company pursuant to the agreement of June 26, 1946. Great Britain, Appendix of Prerogative Orders, No. 7, 1 Statutory Rules and Orders (1946), p. 2347.
10 The Constitution of the Philippines (33 Philippine Official Gazette, p. 729), approved by the President of the United States on March 23, 1935, defines Philippine territory as comprising “ . . . all territory ceded to the United States by the treaty of Paris concluded between the United States and Spain on the tenth day of December, eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, the limits of which are set forth in Article III of said treaty, together with all the islands embraced in the treaty concluded at Washington, between the United States and Spain on the seventh day of November, nineteen hundred, and the treaty concluded between the United States and Great Britain on the second day of January, nineteen hundred and thirty, and all territory over which the present Government of the Philippine Islands exercises jurisdiction.” Art. I, Sec. 1.
11 Letter of British Foreign Service Officer, N. E. Dening, to the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, dated June 6, 1947.
12 Ibid.
13 Letter of the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila, dated Sept. 24, 1947.
14 Ibid.
15 Letter of the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila, dated Sept. 24, 1947.
16 Letter of the British Minister in Manila to the Philippine Secretary of Foreign Affairs, dated April 20, 1948.
17 The third paragraph of the note.
18 Letter of the Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila.
19 Letter of the Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila, dated July 23, 1949.
20 Ibid.
21 In a letter dated Feb. 10, 1950, the writers were informed by the TJ. S. State Department that “a, check of the files in the Department of State fails to reveal that the British Government has at any time requested the United States Government to use its good offices in connection, with the disagreement between the Philippines and Great Britain concerning the lighthouse at Taganak Island.”
22 Public Act No. 127, 73d Congress.
23 Section 2 (b).
24 Letter of the Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila, dated July 23, 1949.
25 Ibid.
26 Joaquin Velez Villanueva, Reopilación Legislativa en la Zona de Influencia de Espana en Marruecos, en la de Tanger y en la de Francia (Madrid, 1917), p. 23.
27 These states were: United States, Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Norway. The Cape Spartel Lighthouse Convention appears in U. S. Treaty Series, No. 245.
28 Preamble to the convention. See U. S. Treaty Series, No. 245.
29 Convention establishing tariff duties between Japan and the United States, Great Britain, France, and The Netherlands. U. S. Treaty Series, No. 188.
30 League of Nations Docs. C.634. M.253 (1930), Vol. III, p. 13.
31 These were: Germany, Belgium, Cuba, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Morocco, Tunis, Greece, Monaco, The Netherlands, Portugal and Sweden.
32 Letter of the Philippine Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs to the British Minister in Manila dated July 23, 1949.
