Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1909
File No. 20292/63–65.
Ambassador Thompson to the Secretary of State.
Mexico, September 30, 1909.
Sir: Referring to the department’s telegram of the 22d instant, and to later ones on the same subject, I herewith inclose the original copy of the Mexican protocol for the meeting of President Taft and President Diaz at Juarez on the 16th proximo, as I also do copy of the toast which President Diaz proposes to offer at the banquet to be given by him at Juarez on the evening of the above-named day.
I have, etc.,
mexican protocol for the interview of presidents diaz and taft, which will take place october 16, 1909.
A little before 11 a.m. the President of Mexico will proceed toward the street railway bridge, which he will cross, accompanied by an adequate escort as well as the members of his general staff, and with them reach the house in which Mr. Taft may wait for him.
The Mexican forces will accompany the President of Mexico only so far as the northern border of El Chamizal, where they will await the return of the presidential party.
The American troop of Cavalry which is to accompany the President of Mexico will wait for him at the north end of the said street railway bridge to escort him or stand in line, as Gen. Myer may see fit, from that point to First Street in El Paso, Tex., where President Diaz will be welcomed by the American Secretary of War and the other personages enumerated in the protocol sent from Washington.
This being done, all will proceed to the place appointed in the said protocol for the interview of the two Presidents.
[Page 427]The President of Mexico’s return will be made in the same manner.
The President of the United States will start at noon for Ciudad Juarez, and will be waited on at the south end of the electric railway bridge, where Juarez Avenue ends, by the secretary of war of Mexico, accompanied by Brig. Gen. Gregorio Ruiz with his staff, a regiment with its band, and a battery of field artillery.
The secretary of finance will go in a presidential carriage to receive President Taft, as President Diaz’s personal representative, on his arrival at the bridge end. The governor of Chihuahua and the jefe politico of the Bravos district, together with the presidential guard, will accompany the above-named secretary.
The ministry of foreign relations of Mexico and the Department of State of Washington are agreed on the proposition made by the Mexican and accepted by the American chancellery in regard to the neutrality of the Chamizal tract, so that that zone shall remain in its present statu quo.
As soon as the secretary of finance and the governor of Chihuahua shall have greeted President Taft the former will extend to him a welcome in the name of the President of the Mexican Republic, then the governor of Chihuahua will greet him in the name of the State, and the jefe politico of Bravos will do so in the name of Ciudad Juarez. The band will then play the American anthem, Star-Spangled Banner.
The secretary of finance and the governor of Chihuahua will see President Taft to the carriage that will be waiting for him. As soon as President Taft shall have entered the carriage he will be given a 21-gun salute, fired by the Mexican battery. The secretary of finance will go in the same carriage with President Taft, sitting on his left in the back seat. President Taft’s aide will take his seat in front of both.
The American troops that shall have accompanied President Taft will wait on the other side of the bridge the return of the presidential party, except Mr. Taft’s personal escort which will proceed to Juarez.
The Mexican troops, with the American party will escort the President of the United States until he meets the President of Mexico in the following order:
Brig. Gen. Ruiz and his staff; President Taft’s carriage; carriages of President Taft’s personal escort; the governor of Chihuahua and his aides; the regiment of cavalry; the field artillery.
The infantrymen will be stationed close to the house in which President Diaz will receive and greet President Taft.
The chief of staff of the President of Mexico will visit the carriage bringing the President of the United States on its arrival at the customhouse, where the interview and banquet are to take place, and will join the party that is to lead Mr. Taft in the presence of Gen. Diaz.
The President of Mexico will be attended by the secretary of foreign relations, finance, and war, who will place themselves immediately behind President Diaz during the meeting.
President Diaz will welcome President Taft in a simple manner and few words, and President Taft will reply in the same manner.
President Diaz will retire, at his convenience and with the same company, and receive the same salute as was given on his crossing the frontier.
The President of the United States will start at about 5.30 p.m. from El Paso for Ciudad Juarez to attend the banquet offered to him by the President of Mexico; his reception and leaving will be the same as on his previous visit.
Two toasts only shall be given at the banquet, one by the President of Mexico, tendering the entertainment, and the other by the President of the United States in reply.
toast of mexican president.
Mr. President, Gentlemen: The visit His Excellency, President Taft, to-day makes to the Mexican territory will mark an epoch in the history of Mexico. We have had in our midst very illustrious American visitors, such as Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and the Hon. Messrs. Seward and Root, but never before have we seen in our land the Chief Magistrate of the great American Union. This striking trait of international courtesy, which Mexico acknowledges and appreciates to its full value and significance, will henceforward establish a happy [Page 428] precedent for the Latin-American Republics to cultivate unbroken and cordial relations among themselves with us and with every nation of the continent.
Actuated by these sentiments, which are also those of my compatriots, I raise my glass to the everlasting enjoyment by the country of the immortal Washington of all the happiness and prosperity which justly belong to the intelligent industry and eminent civism that are the characteristics of the manly and cultured American people and to the enduring glory of its heroic founders. I raise my glass to the personal happiness of its illustrious President who has come to honor us with his presence and friendship, whose display will make for the cultivation of the common interests which bind the two neighbor nations whose respective elements of life and progress find in their union reciprocal completion and enhancement.