File No. 812.00/4511.
The American Ambassador to
the Secretary of State.
No. 1545.]
American Embassy,
Mexico,
July 24, 1912.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the Department’s instruction No. 879 of the 28th ultimo,
relative to the alleged violation of the neutrality laws of the United
States by certain persons supposed to be agents of the Mexican
Government, particularly Mr. E. C. Llorente, Mexican Consul at El Paso,
Texas, and to transmit herewith copies of my note to the Foreign Office
and of its reply thereto, together with a communication1 written by the Military
Attaché of this Embassy, all having a bearing on the subject
mentioned.
I have [etc.]
[Page 819]
[Inclosure 1.]
The American Ambassador
to the Mexican Minister for Foreign
Affairs.
American Embassy,
Mexico,
July 17, 1912.
Mr. Minister: Through information
furnished by the agents of the Department of Justice, my Government
has learned that ostensible agents of the Government of Mexico have
been and are at the present time engaged in recruiting soldiers for
the Mexican Army in American border States. The reports of the
agents of the Department of Justice are specific as to the time and
place of these illegal enlistments alleged to have been encouraged,
aided, and abetted by agents of the Mexican Government, and the name
of the Mexican Consul at El Paso, Mr. Enrique G. Llorente, is
connected therewith by strong circumstantial evidence, numerous
witnesses having testified to having been paid for their services in
the Mexican Consulate at El Paso.
The laws of the Government of the United States are peremptory in
their provision that no person shall, within the territory or
jurisdiction of the United States, enlist or enter himself or hire
or retain another person to enlist or enter himself or to go beyond
the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States with intent to
be enlisted or entered in the service of any foreign State as a
soldier, and the unmistakable object of these laws is to prevent
every such act. Moreover, these laws are in strict conformity with
the law of nations which declares that no State has a right to raise
troops for service in another State without its consent, and that
whether forbidden by the municipal law or not the mere attempt to
raise troops without such consent assails the national
sovereignty.
If, then, agents of the Mexican Government have enlisted or attempted
to enlist military recruits, their action would appear to be either
in evasion of the law or in violation thereof; and in either
alternative it is alike injurious, and if the former is the case and
these agents have escaped punishment as malefactors, such successful
evasion only serves to increase the degree of wrong that has been
done to the United States.
I am also directed to say that my Government, while it is loath to
believe that the recruiting which the investigations of the
Department of Justice seem to show has been taking place is being
carried out with the knowledge and under the direction of the
Mexican Government, trusts that the Government of Mexico, realizing
the injurious character of such activity, will at once take steps to
have recruiting for Mexican federal forces, whether authorized or
not, cease immediately and will at once give to all persons
concerned who may be under the control of the Mexican
Government—particularly to the Mexican Consul at El
Paso—instructions of such a character that they will desist from any
attempt to recruit soldiers on American soil.
I am instructed to say, finally, that the Department of Justice has
been requested by the Department of State thoroughly to investigate
all apparent infractions of the so-called neutrality statutes of the
country, and to proceed in accordance with the law against all who
may be found guilty of such infractions, and so to put an end to
action infringing the municipal law of the Government of the United
States and derogatory to the sovereignty of that Government.
I avail [etc.]
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to the American
Ambassador.
Department of Foreign Relations,
Mexico,
July 20, 1912.
Mr. Ambassador: Having noted the contents
of your excellency’s note No. 5379 of the 17th instant,, received
yesterday, in which you inform me that, according to reports which
have been obtained by the Department of Justice of the Government of
the United States, agents of the Government of Mexico have been
recruiting soldiers in frontier American States, the Mexican Consul
at El Paso, Mr. Enrique C. Llorente, having aided in that
recruiting, I have the honor to inform you that my Government has
taken especial care to observe
[Page 820]
strictly the international neutrality laws and
has not authorized the recruiting of troops for the Mexican Army on
American territory.
Even though I had all confidence that the Mexican Consul, on his
part, had not transgressed his duties, yesterday he was asked to
report under the strictest responsibility, and has answered in the
terms of the following message, which I have the honor to
transcribe:
“I beg that you will please assure the American Ambassador at that
place that neither I nor agents of this Consulate have ever
recruited persons in American territory for the Mexican army, a
thing which I can prove to the authorities at this place should they
make an investigation, which I invite them to do. If any person has
violated the neutrality laws I have ever been the first to become
active in punishing him. You may be assured that the asseveration
against me or against agents of this Consulate proceeds from enemies
who are searching for means of provoking trouble for our
Government.”
It is, therefore, a satisfaction for the Mexican Government to answer
on this occasion that its international obligations have been
complied with, and to respectfully beg your excellency to make known
to your Government the content of this note. In the same manner I
beg that there may be communicated to my Government, if it is not
found inconvenient, the reports which you may have relative to
violations which should be suppressed, in order to direct Consul
Llorente, once more, to proceed with the necessary activity to
impede such recruiting, for the Mexican Government affirms that it
proposes to maintain itself within the limits of the strictest
legality and avoid all those acts which might bring, even
indirectly, as a consequence, a complaint of a nation so friendly as
the United States.
It is pleasing to me to reiterate [etc.],
