File No. 812.00/0173.
[Untitled]
Mexico, October 11, 1913—noon.
545. The Minister for Foreign .Affairs received the entire Diplomatic Corps this morning and informed them that government had [Page 837] become impossible with the Chamber as at present constituted, and while the Government knew its act1 in dissolving the Chamber was unconstitutional, nevertheless Mexico must be compared to a sick man who required an operation to save his life. He said elections would be held and that on November 15 the new Chamber of Deputies would assemble.
The Spanish Minister called last night and requested me to accompany him to see the Minister for Foreign Affairs in order to obtain guaranties for the lives of the arrested Congressmen. The Minister for Foreign Affairs accompanied us to the penitentiary, where we were shown a list of 84 deputies imprisoned there and given assurances by the Minister that none of them would suffer the least harm.
Huerta may now be considered an absolute military dictator.
- For the text of the decree dissolving the Congress, see inclosure to Mr. O’Shaughnessy’s despatch No. 2093 of October 14, post.↩