The Acting Secretary of State to Chargé McCreery.
Washington, March 10, 1906.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 213 of the 19th ultimo,a inclosing a copy of a newspaper article containing what purports to be a translation of an order of the Mexican department of Fomento, addressed to mining agents in the State of Sonora and the northern district of Lower California, directing that for the present no application by an alien for a mining claim be admitted.
[Page 1141]You will inquire if the order is authentic, and if it be you will suggest that it is open to criticism on the score of its recital, if not of its logic. In view of the disturbed and insecure conditions in Sonora and Lower California, this temporary prohibition of mining licenses to aliens would seem to be appropriate and even necessary. That reason might be given as the motive of the measure, but its present form is objectionable.
I am, etc.,