File No. 812.00/3690.
[Inclosure.]
The American Ambassador
to the Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
American Embassy,
Mexico,
April 15, 1912.
Mr. Minister: I have the honor to inform
your excellency that I am in receipt of telegraphic instructions
from my Government to bring the following considerations to the
attention of your excellency’s Government:
The enormous and constantly increasing destruction of valuable
American properties in the course of the present unfortunate
revolutionary disturbances, the taking of American life contrary to
the principles governing among civilized nations, the increasing
dangers to which all American citizens in Mexico are subjected, and
the seemingly possible indefinite continuance of this unfortunate
situation, compel the Government of the United States to give notice
that it expects and must demand that American life and property
within the Republic of Mexico be justly and adequately protected and
that it must hold Mexico and the Mexican people responsible for all
wanton or illegal acts sacrificing or endangering American life or
property interests there situated.
Meanwhile it should be apparent to all sections of the Mexican people
that those who spread baseless rumors or provoke just resentment by
attacks on Americans, or other foreign persons or property, are
working against the best interests and the honor of their
country—for which the United States is known to hold, and in the
present situation is manifesting, the greatest and most sincere
friendship—and are seeking for their own selfish ends to burden the
future of their countrymen with heavy obligations of enormous
damages for their wrongful acts.
How strongly the Government of the United States deprecates even the
very few cases of participation by its citizens in the present
insurrectionary disturbances is well known to the Government and to
the people of Mexico; this disposition has been further evidenced by
the President’s proclamation of March 2, 1912, and the various other
acts of my Government looking to the same end. The Government of the
United States must insist and demand that American citizens who may
be taken prisoners as participants in the present revolutionary
disorders shall be dealt with in accordance with the principles of
international law which may be involved, to which the people of
Mexico have given their assent and adherence in numerous
international engagements. My Government must hold the Mexican
people strictly responsible for any departure from such
principles.
I must also, in compliance with my instructions, call the attention
of your excellency to the fact that certain newspapers report that
some Federal officers, notably General Villa, have announced an
intention to execute summarily any
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Americans belonging to the forces of Orozco
who may fall into their hands. My Government hesitates to give
credence to these reports, but, in view of the pressing urgency of
the matter and the possibility of the commission of some act in
defiance of international practice, I have the honor to request that
appropriate instructions be issued to the proper military officers
directing, in cases where Americans are concerned, strict conformity
with established and civilized usage.
In concluson I quote to your excellency a copy of an instruction sent
by my Government to Consul Letcher at Chihuahua, of which he is
directed to furnish a copy to the rebel leader Orozco, as
follows:
“The Government and people of the United States have viewed with
grave concern the practical murder under the positive order of one
of your chief lieutenants of an American citizen who is reported to
have been taken prisoner during or at the end of a regular
engagement. The prisoner is said to have been dressed in a regular
uniform and obviously one of the regular forces of the established
Government of Mexico. The Government of the United States must
insist, in so far as the treatment of American citizens taken
prisoners by whatever force is concerned, that the rules and
principles accepted by civilized nations as controlling their
actions in time of war shall be followed and observed, and the
Government of the United States must give notice that any deviation
from such a course, and indeed any maltreatment of any American
citizen, will be deeply resented by the American Government and
people and must be fully answered for by the Mexican people, thus
tending to difficulties and obligations which it is to the interest
of all true Mexican patriots, as it is the desire of the United
States, to avoid.”
I avail myself, etc.,
