File No. 812.00/3068.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador.
Washington, March 19, 1912.
Sir: In connection with all correspondence relating to the matter of the exportation of arms and munitions of war from the United States into Mexico, and with particular reference to the statement in your telegram of March 6, 10 p.m., that in the discussion with your European colleagues they “expressed disapproval of the course of this Government in permitting the shipment of arms and ammunition across the frontier to the revolutionists,” the Department deems it necessary to remark that the Department’s study of this question appears quite clearly to indicate that their Governments in a like situation would probably not take a position materially different, if indeed so strong.
[Page 753]The principles of international law, which remain now, as heretofore, entirely unaffected by the legislation of this Government, did not require the prohibition of such exportation, no matter what administrative means other Governments might, as a matter of grace in any given case, have recourse to, as a practical expedient, and the so-called neutrality statutes of this Government as they existed prior to March 14, although they appear to go far beyond the neutrality statutes of other nations, would just as little have justified such prohibition.
I am [etc.]