Office of the Historian

File No. 812.00/17102

The Secretary of State to the Secretary of War 3

Department of State,
Washington, January 19, 1916.

Sir: I have the honor to advise you that the Department has been informed by its representative near General Carranza that the authorities of the de facto Government in Mexico fear that the guilty participants in the recent murder of Americans at Santa Ysabel will seek refuge in the United States and therefore urge that the appropriate authorities of this country exercise the strictest supervision over members of the forces of Villa who may attempt to enter the United States.

I have the honor to request, therefore, that you give orders for the exercise of such supervision, and that every effort be made by the officers under your authority to exclude from the United States any persons against whom there may be ground for suspicion of participation in the outrage mentioned.

I have [etc.]

Robert Lansing
  1. The same to the Secretary of Labor.↩