File No. 812.00/12273.
Consul Edwards to the Secretary of State.
After interviews with local officials here who are in constant communication with General Villa and General Carranza, I am convinced that the differences arising between the two men concerning the movements of the army will not in the least retard the campaign against Huerta Government. It is the claim of Villa’s friends that the contest against Carranza is only for the purpose of freeing the movements of the troops from the dictatorship of Carranza. All [Page 542] army officers are with Villa, who is today advancing on Zacatecas. Villa asked permission to go and attack that city, but Carranza refused this permission, whereupon Villa sent his resignation to Carranza and it was accepted at once and Villa was ordered to Chihuahua to become civil governor. A meeting of all army officers was called, it is said, and Villa was prevailed on to take the field. All indications point to such an adjustment of the matter as will not seriously interfere with the success of the Constitutionalist cause.