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~ 21.02(4) MINERAL LAW INSTITUTE 21-10 At the time, all of the basin states except California viewed the Treaty with equanimity and supported its ratifi- cation by the Senate.23 Hindsight has been much less com- forting. "In actual fact, the treaty has proven to be ex- tremely vexatious to all states of the Colorado River Basin and probably will become the subject of protracted litiga- tion. . . ." 24 There has been a natural tendency to second- guess its negotiators. One theory is that fear of a Japanese invasion' of Mexico in 1941 and 1942 had panicked the fed- eral government into granting extravagant water conces- sions in return for military collaboration.25 There is also con- siderable evidence that the United States traded away water on the Colorado to obtain extra benefits on the Rio Grande.26 However, in 1944, Jean Breitenstein, then attorney for the Colorado River Water Conservation Board, argued that the 1929 Pan American Arbitration Treaty would in any event compel the United States to enter into a similar kind of ar- rangement.27 [4] The Upper Colorado River Basin Compact The Upper Basin states, plus Arizona, signed the Upper Colorado River' Basin Compact in 1948.28 They were prompted by a 1946 Bureau of Reclamation survey which recommended major projects, primarily in the Upper Basin, and by the Secretary of the Interior's announced reluctance to seek congressional authorization of those projects until the Upper Basin states ,had reached an allocation of the wa- 23 N. Hundley Jr., "The West Against Itself: The Colorado River-An Institu- tional History" in New Courses for the Colorado River, supra note 5, at 27. 24 Memorandum from Felix Sparks, Director, to Colorado Water Conservation Board, "Synopsis of Major Documents and Events Related to the Colorado River" 8 (July 1976). 25 lei. See also H.R. Rep. No. 1312, 90th Cong., 2d Sess., 1968 U.S. Code Cong & Ad. News 3696(1968). 26 See Hundley, supra note 23, at 26; see also H.R. Rep. No. 1312, supra note 25, at 3695. 27 J. Breitenstein, The 1929 Pan Arbitration Treaty and the Treaty Between the United States and Mexico (Sept. 14,1944). 28 Ch. 48, 63 Stat. 31 (1949).