Office of the Historian

File No. 312.115/211.

The Secretary of State to Special Agent Silliman.

Department of State,
Washington, May 20, 1915.

Sir: The Department has received your unnumbered despatch of May 6, 1915, transmitting a memorandum [etc.]

The Department cannot undertake to advise American citizens whether as a practical matter they shall make payment of amounts assessed against them in the guise of taxes, but apparently without warrant of law, by de facto authorities in Mexico.

With respect to this situation the Department can only say that if the interested American citizens shall conceive that they are being unlawfully treated and shall bring the matter to the attention of the Department, the appropriate representatives of the United States [Page 1001] Government will be directed to protest against any apparently illegal exactions which are made and request their withdrawal.

I am [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
Robert Lansing.