File No. 812.00/8211.
[Inclosure—Translation.]
The Subsecretary for Foreign
Affairs to the American
Ambassador.
Foreign Office,
Mexico City,
July 15, 1913.
Mr. Ambassador: In note No. 6243, dated
the 12th instant, your excellency states that you have noted [etc.
to the end of the note].
It is a matter of much regret to me, as it is to your excellency to
refer to the manifestations of ill will on the part of a certain
group and of various journals of the capital against the Government
of the United States; but I can not but call your excellency’s
attention to the fact that such manifestations, in so far as the
majority of the newspapers and the greater masses of the people are
concerned, especially the youth of the schools and the working
classes, are not directed against the American nation and much less
against the Americans residing in this capital, which facts perhaps
have not reached your excellency’s knowledge in all the extent of
the truth, because of the natural excitement of your informants.
Your excellency states that the Americans who live in Mexico, whose
supposed dangers have given rise to the representations I have the
honor to reply to, are in perfect sympathy with the mass of the
demonstrators. This very thing indicates to what extent their
demonstrations will go, and I can without the least doubt assure
your excellency that if the Americans have enjoyed in Mexico the
fullest protection [sic], the same has not been the exclusive result
of the vigilance of the Government, but also of the spirit of
justice which moves the whole country, even at a time of excitement
produced by the acts to which your excellency refers and which I am
sure would not have caused the excitement of passions, such as we
see, if certain representations had been attended to in time when
made by the Government of Mexico in the most friendly way and with
the desire to present before public opinion in this country the
satisfactory results of its diplomatic action near the American
Government in order to calm all kinds of animosity.
Your excellency may be sure, as there are many proofs in support of
it, that the Mexican Government spontaneously will at all times
prevent the overflowing of popular sentiment against the citizens or
representatives of a friendly nation, whatever may be the diplomatic
relations with the foreign Government to which they may belong, and
your excellency may also feel certain that my Government will do
nothing that will excite public opinion by giving out events which
should remain a secret in the Chancelleries or by presenting others
in an adulterated form.
I can not refrain from mentioning and examining the latest events, in
order to make it completely clear as regards the reference made in
your excellency’s note.
The case of the Mexican flag insulted in Tucson was not published by
the Mexican Government but on the contrary the statements of the
Department of Foreign Relations very eloquently show, the desire to
appease public opinion, notwithstanding that it has been necessary,
as your excellency knows, to resort to all the means of persuasion
in order not fully to show the lack of an active and energetic
desire on the part of the United States to satisfy the just demands
of the Mexican Government.
With reference to the case of Consul Johnson I shall say only that
the events having occurred about the middle of June and the details
of the same having been published since then with regard to the
attempt to have the military band held at Brownsville pass into the
ranks of the rebels, as suggested by the above Consul, it has not
been the Mexican Government which has published; the matter in the
press and it is not to blame if its efforts have been without a
satisfactory reply to this day. To withdraw the exequatur of the
above Consul, though perfectly justifiable, would have meant to
deprive the Government of the United States of the occasion it had
to show its spirit of impartiality and its good will toward this
country and it would have tended to exasperate the people.
In the case of the conduct of the Commander of the S. S. Pittsburg some representations have been made
to the Government of the United States, not precisely with reference
to the direction given to the rays of the searchlight at the time of
the fight between Government and rebel forces, but in
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regard to certain
maneuvering of a suspicious character which might not indicate
complicity, but a sign of the sympathy which, according to evidence
generally obtained by the Embassy, exists between American residents
of Sonora and the rebels operating in that state. On the other hand,
the acts executed by the Commander of the Pittsburg were so public that no official declaration was
needed to have them become the property of the press.
As your excellency may see, the whole of this affair is not a matter
of fictitious doings to excite public opinion, but of a status of
deep excitement, the cause of which is well known to your
excellency, which you implicitly recognize when you say that the
impartial and just American colony resident of this city is in close
sympathy with the views of the demonstrators to whom you refer.
It is not my intention to defend the press which maliciously tends to
create disturbance, which it preserves by means of false reports and
inflammatory statements; but if such were the theme of this note
there is no doubt that the Mexican press would be the less guilty in
view of the amount and intensity of the insults, slander and
offenses of all kinds which, as your excellency knows, the press of
the United States has been publishing during the past three years
against men and groups of parties in my country and even against the
whole nation, encouraged sometimes by the opinion of persons of
political influence in the United States and on no few occasions by
correspondents who live among us and who claim to be eye-witnesses
of acts of their own invention or fancy, thus contributing to the
torrent of misguided opinion of which your excellency has been one
of the victims.
I will not make a comparison between the privileges and advantages
enjoyed Mexican and American emigrants, as from such a comparison
your excellency’s compatriots would surety not be at a disadvantage.
Your excellency’s indications will always be carefully attended to,
as in the past, without taking into consideration the equal
treatment received by our nationals in the United States; because
even though in many cases they may be treated differently on account
of their origin or position, to do likewise would not be the means
of remedying a deplorable condition, but rather of causing a
lowering of the level of Mexico’s obligations to protect all
foreigners residing within its territory.
I renew [etc.]
