File No. 812.00/23487, 23488.
The Special Commissioners to the Secretary of State.
The Mediators were furnished last night with a copy of the paragraphs you are willing to protocolize. They requested us to meet them at 3.30 today and submitted their draft covering the same points. After discussion it was amended to read as follows:
Paragraph 2. The Provisional Government referred to in protocol No. 341 shall be constituted by agreement of the delegates representing the parties between which the internal struggle in Mexico is taking place.
Paragraph 3. A. Upon the constitution of the Provisional Government in the City of Mexico, the Government of the United States of America will recognize it immediately, and thereupon diplomatic relations between the two countries will be restored.
B. The Government of the United States of America will not in any form whatsoever claim a war indemnity or other international satisfaction.
C. The Provisional Government will proclaim an absolute amnesty to all foreigners for any and all political offenses committed during the period of civil war in Mexico.
D. The Provisional Government will negotiate for the constitution of international commissions for the settlement of the claims of foreigners on account of damages sustained during the period of civil war as a consequence of military acts or the acts of national authorities.
You will notice that, following your suggestion, the provision relating to the evacuation of Vera Cruz was postponed.
We called attention to the fact that provisions for amnesty were limited to foreigners solely for the reason that amnesty for Mexicans was a matter of domestic policy, but expressed the hope that the representatives for the two Mexican parties would provide for a broad and general amnesty for all Mexicans.
We objected to the phrase “thus closing the international incident “at the end of 3, A, as proposed by the Mediators. We called attention to the fact that this language might be construed so as to make it incumbent upon the United States to withdraw from Vera Cruz immediately upon the recognition of the provisional government. At last the Mediators proposed to strike out those words and insert “and diplomatic relations between the two countries will then be restored.”
After the paragraphs had been protocolized we called attention to the fact that they had been drafted and adopted in expectation that the Mexican representatives would agree among themselves upon matters of internal policy; but if that expectation should unfortunately fail we understood that the adoption of those paragraphs was without prejudice to have the matters again brought before [Page 547] the Mediators in case that course was found to be desirable or necessary.
- See Mr. Dodge’s No, 25 of July 1, post.↩