No. 233.
Mr. Foster to Mr. Evarts.

No. 577.]

Sir: General Diaz’s minister of foreign affairs called upon me at the legation yesterday afternoon and showed me several telegrams which his government had received from Mexican officials on the Rio Grande [Page 425] frontier, reporting that partisans of Ex-President Lerdo were actively and openly engaged at different points in Texas in organizing revolutionary or filibustering expeditions into Mexico. Mr. Vallarta stated that his government was on the alert to prevent the crossing into Mexican territory of any such bands; but in view of the long extent of that border it would be very difficult to guard every exposed point without the co-operation of the American authorities.

I said to Mr. Vallarta that he had anticipated a visit which I had designed to make to the foreign office for the purpose, among other things, of conveying to him the assurances contained in your dispatch No. 398 of the 26th ultimo, in regard to the enforcement of the neutrality laws of the United States, and that in view of that assurance I had no doubt my government would desire to be informed of the facts reported by the Mexican officials, and that I would at once send you a telegram on the subject.

Accordingly, immediately after the minister’s departure, I sent you a dispatch via Overland Telegraph Line.

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It is due to Mr. Vallarta to state that he did not request me to send the telegram, but upon my statement that I would transmit it, he said his government would highly appreciate the act and the enforcement of the neutrality laws.

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I am, &c.,

JOHN W. FOSTER.