File No. 812.00/447.
American Embassy,
Mexico, November 16,
1910.
No. 249.
[Inclosure—Memorandum—Extract.]
To-day at noon I called upon the President for the purpose of
conferring with him upon the recent anti-American disturbances
throughout the country. * * * He immediately opened the question by
saying that he felt confident that the agitation had been brought
about by persons antagonistic to the Government; that the students
had been used as a tool to discredit the Government and that the
crime committed in Rock Springs, Tex., had served as a pretext to
arouse the young men into unlawful action. He said that this belief
of his was corroborated by the discovery made yesterday by the
police, to the effect that a certain commercial house had sold to an
enemy of the Government something like 100 rifles; * * * that a
thorough search having been made in the house of the purchaser, the
police discovered in his possession three appointments, signed by
Francisco Madero, as President ad interim and
Commander of the Revolutionary Army of Mexico, in favor of men known
to be adverse to the Government.
The President also informed me that he had received information by
wire that the consul at San Antonio, Tex., had complained to the
American authorities about the purchase made by the followers of
Madero of a certain number of arms, which soon after this complaint
were seized by said authorities. He considers this act as a breach
of the laws of neutrality and would much appreciate such energetic
action as the American Government may take to stop this unlawful
practice of men who seek refuge in the United States for no other
purpose than to conduct a relentless revolutionary campaign against
the Government of a friendly nation. The President said that he had
always looked with satisfaction upon the friendly relations of
Mexico and the United States, and that there is nothing he will not
do to bring the countries to a still closer understanding.
He said that he had given the press strict orders to stop any further
comments on the anti-American demonstrations, and that one of the
journals which had disobeyed these instructions, namely, El Debate,
had been suppressed. I asked him why it was, then, that the more
serious journals did not come right out in terms and denounce the
so-called anti-American movement as a disturbance caused for
political motives and not because of the lynching of a man in Texas.
He said that such papers as the Government could control would do so
in a day or two.
He said that the evidence relating to the revolutionary campaign
conducted by Madero and Flores Magón had been sent to Ambassador de
la Barra, in Washington, but that he would much appreciate it if I
would also bring these facts to the attention of the Department,
which I, of course, promised him that I would do.
