File No. 812.00/654.
[Untitled]
Washington, January 24, 1911.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your excellency’s note No. 674, of the 18th instant, in which you inform the Department that according to reports from the consul of Mexico at Tucson [etc.].
Your excellency communicates the foregoing in order that the Government of the United States may have fresh elements of evidence for use by it in determining the culpability of persons accused of violating the neutrality laws of the United States.
In reply I venture to remind your excellency that the mere fact that a man is engaged in revolutionary undertakings in another country does not render his presence in the United States illegal, and further, that the sale of arms and ammunition to individuals, so long as it is not made in connection with any act forbidden by our neutrality statutes, does not constitute unneutral conduct. As was stated in one of the cases to which your excellency has drawn the attention of this Department:
It is not an offense against the United States to transport arms, ammunition, and munitions of war from this country to any foreign country, whether they are to be used in war or not; nor is it an offense against the United States for individuals to leave this country with intent to enlist in foreign military service; nor is it an offense against the United States to transport persons out of this country and land them in foreign countries, although such persons have an intent to enlist in foreign armies; nor is it an offense against the United States to transport from this country persons intending to enlist in foreign armies and munitions of war in the same ship. The purpose of the section in question (R. S. 5286) is to prevent the use of the soil or waters of the United States as a base from which military expeditions or military enterprises shall be carried on against foreign powers with which the United States is at peace. What it prohibits is a military expedition or a military enterprise from this country against any foreign power at peace with the United States. (United States v. Murphy.)
Accept, etc.,