File No. 812.71/8a.
The Acting Secretary of State to the Mexican Ambassador.
Washington, March 4, 1912.
My Dear Mr. Ambassador: Referring to Señor de la Cueva’s call at the Department this morning, when he saw Mr. Dearing and asked him whether Mexican mails routed through Ciudad Juárez could be delivered to the Mexican consul at El Paso, Tex., for distribution, I beg to inform you that under the rules of international law a foreign port in the hands of insurgents (except where ingress or egress from such port is physically prevented by blockade or otherwise by the parent government) is regarded as if it were still in the hands of the parent government and so open to the intercourse and commerce of other nations.
This Government does not feel, therefore, that it has any legal basis for prohibiting the routing of mail through Ciudad Juárez when that is the only point through which mails destined to that section of the country can be dispatched. Moreover, as it would be manifestly improper for a postmaster of a foreign country to exercise his functions within the territory of the United States, still more would it be improper for such functions to be exercised by a foreign consul; and accordingly mail pouches can not properly be delivered to a consul. I may add, however, that official mail addressed to officials of the established government can probably be delivered to a consul, and that if mail can reach its destination through any other point than Ciudad Juárez it may be so routed.
I am [etc.]