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<br />, <br />,'< '> <br /> <br />2 <br /> <br />(:) <br /> <br />'~ they could obtain better terms on the Colorado by considering <br />'" <br /> <br />00 the two rivers together in one treaty. It was also significant <br />-.J <br /> <br />that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee <br /> <br /> <br />in the 1940s was Senator Connally of Texas, which state would <br /> <br /> <br />benefit greatly from an agreement with Mexico on the Rio Grande. <br /> <br />Negotiations between the United States and Mexico concerning <br /> <br /> <br />the Colorado River commenced originally in 1929, but were broken <br /> <br /> <br />off. They were reinstituted in the late thirties, but it was <br /> <br /> <br />not until 1941 that the negotiations were undertaken which finally <br /> <br /> <br />led to the 1944 agreement. <br /> <br />The initial United States position in 1929 was that Mexico <br />should receive 750,000 acre-feet per year from the Colorado River, <br />which was then the largest amount of water that Mexico had used <br />in anyone year, The 1928 Boulder Canyon Project Act had authorized <br />construction of Hoover Dam with one of the stated purposes being the <br /> <br />delivery of stored water for " <br /> <br />. . <br /> <br />beneficial uses exclusively <br /> <br />within the United States <br /> <br />" <br /> <br />The 750,000 acre-feet per year was <br /> <br />. . . <br /> <br />also considered by engineers to be the largest practical supply that <br /> <br /> <br />Mexico could use without regulation by upstream storage reservoirs. <br /> <br /> <br />Mexico countered with a demand for 3.6 million acre-feet per year, <br /> <br />and negotiations were abandoned. <br /> <br />In 1941, the United States offered 0.9 million acre-feet per <br />year (maf/yr) of stored Colorado River water to be released on <br />demand to Mexican users. Early in 1942, the United States' offer <br /> <br />. .I <br />