Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1918

File No. 312.115/353

The Vice Consul at Tampico ( Ward) to the Secretary of State

No. 572

Tampico, November 23, 1918.

Sir: With regard to previous despatches from this Consulate enclosing reports by local American oil concerns telling of the abuse of floating equipment owned by them and commandeered by the Mexican military authorities for troop and supply movements, I now have the honor to transmit herewith copies of a joint protest made by several oil companies to General Caesar Lopez de Lara, chief of military operations in this district, bearing on continued abuses by his forces.

A copy of this despatch together with its enclosure is being mailed to the American Embassy at Mexico City.

I have [etc.]

William A. Ward

[Enclosure]

Copy of a joint protest submitted to General Caesar Lopez de Lara by several oil companies

Tampico, Tamps., November 6, 1918.

The undersigned representatives of the oil companies herein mentioned respectfully place before you the following facts and protest strongly against them:

1. That during the months of August, September, and October last past, but more particularly in the last-named months, the military authorities under your worthy command frequently and apparently acting under your orders, have seized and appropriated for the use and service of their forces or for the officers of the same, a large number of the launches, barges, and other craft available and in serviceable condition, property of the companies named below and used by them in their private service over the Chijol Canal to and across the Laguna Tamiahua, and in maintaining their traffic between Tampico and their respective camps and properties in the State of Vera Cruz, as well as in dispatching ships from the port of Tampico.

2. That the military authorities and officers of whom we complain are in the habit of seizing the launches and other craft mentioned and using same unrestrictedly and uninterruptedly as long as they remain serviceable, it being a frequent occurrence for them to be retained until disabled by the carelessness of the people in whose charge they are placed by the military. In practically every instance, these launches, etc., are not returned to the owner until they are in need of extensive repairs, these repairs being especially burdensome to the companies in view of the fact that they are not only expensive, but also consume a great deal of time, hardly ever less than three or four weeks. In addition to the above there have been cases where the launch has been abandoned by its military occupants at the point where it became useless to them, and left there to be picked up later by the company owning it, at its own expense.

3. That the officers and forces under your distinguished command have repeatedly seized and appropriated to their own use shipments of provisions consigned to and intended for the use of the respective camps of these same companies, which provisions were urgently needed to supply the wants of employees at said camps.

4. That as a consequence of the seizure of launches, barges, etc., before mentioned, the undersigned companies have experienced the greatest difficulties in communicating by water with their camps in the region described, and some of the companies have actually found it impossible to do so due to the fact that either all or the greater part of their water craft has been in the possession of the military authorities, or else rendered useless by them. Therefore, the task of furnishing provisions, medicines, and other necessaries to their employees has become not only extremely difficult but even absolutely impossible in some instances.

5. That the military authorities and officers of whom we complain have invariably exacted that the companies pay the crews for the time that said crews have been in the service of said authorities and officers, and in some cases they have gone as far as insisting that the companies pay the crews overtime; but these same authorities and officers have never paid, or even offered to pay for the use of our sailing craft nor for the provisions and other articles that they have seized and appropriated, nor have they even offered to reimburse these companies for the amounts that have been paid out by them to the crews which have rendered service to said officers and military authorities.

6. That due to banditry and the lack of security it is, as you well know, extremely dangerous to life and property to attempt to conduct provisions and other necessaries overland to our camps; by overland we mean by making use of the roads constructed and maintained by some of these very companies at an expenditure of a considerable amount of money. The frequency with which assaults and robberies are committed, with the usual accompanying loss of life, is also well known to you, and right here we believe it proper to mention the case of one of the undersigned companies which has suffered two such assaults within the past ten days.

7. It is our desire to call to your attention the fact that the arbitrary acts which we have set forth work a harsh injustice towards these companies whom we the undersigned represent, and that the abuses of which we complain, taken together with other adverse circumstances, raise obstacles which hinder and impede the effective and satisfactory development which the companies would like to see carried out in their operations at their different camps.

Trusting in your well-known integrity and your strict adherence to law and justice, we respectfully ask that you issue such orders as you may consider proper and sufficient to enable the companies the free, complete, and legitimate use of all their sailing craft, and to protect them in the future from the inconveniences and molestation they have suffered in the past.

We are [etc.]

East Coast Oil Co. S. A.,

J. R. Batte, Jr.

, Superintendent
Cia. Transcontinental de Petroleo,
S. A.

E. J. Sadler

, President
International Petroleum Co.,

J. A. Murphy

Mexican Gulf Oil Company,

C. W. Hamilton

, General Manager.
Cia. Mex. de Pet. “El Aguila,” S. A.,

Jacobsen

Freeport and Mexican Fuel Oil Corporation.,

W. H. Sharp

, General Manager
Cia. de Pet. “La Corona”, S. A.,

F. J. Altamira

Cortez Oil Corporation,

J. W. B. Milligan

, Auditor
La Atlantica,

E. A. Ellis

Cia. Metropolitan a de Oleoductos,
S. A.,

Frank C. Laurie

, Resident Manager
The Texas Company of Mexico,
Theo. Rivers
The Standard Oil, (N. J.),

M. J. Roeder