File No. 812.00/980.
[Translation.]
Washington, March 16, 1911.
Excellency: From an official report by Col. Manuel Tamborrell, military commander at Ciudad Juárez, to his superior officers, my Government has learned that in an expedition to the west of that city about the 7th of February last, when the soldiers of Lieut. Col. Manuel G. Pueblita reached a point near the first monument opposite the smelting works, several groups on the American bank of the Rio Grande discharged firearms at the Mexican force.
I do not believe that the facts have come to the knowledge of the Federal or local authorities at El Paso as, were it so, appropriate punishment would have been inflicted on the perpetrators of that outrage, nor do I believe that it will be easy to investigate the matter. I am, therefore, guided in communicating the foregoing to your excellency by the purpose of bringing to the notice of the department under your very worthy charge the animosity that prevails among certain elements of the border population of Texas against the servants of the Government of Mexico, on no other ground than that it has become one of the present duties of those servants to check the march of sedition.
There is no doubt that your excellency, on taking into consideration the significance of facts like that above mentioned, will be able to appraise certain wholly groundless complaints that have been made against the Federal soldiers of Mexico by misinformed or biased persons, for when ill will towards our army reaches the extreme of attempting to sow death in its ranks, on the part of persons who are noncombatants, it is no wonder that they will with greater ease try to injure its good name in other ways.
I have deemed it my duty to enter upon the foregoing considerations and to bring them into connection with my note No. 1057 of this date by which I acquaint your excellency with the scheme to pass rebels who would commit outrages on the American frontier for Federals; for, I beg to say it again, your excellency will thus be put in possession of all the elements on which to form judgment if [Page 427] any deplorable incident should unfortunately occur through the agency of persons whose minds are obscured by their evil passions.
I avail [etc.],