File No. 812.00/1210.
The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Mexico, March 29, 1911.
My Dear Mr. Knox:
[The first paragraph consists of military information.]
The anti-American sentiment in the country, which was so rampant in most parts of the Republic prior to and following the anti-American riots, seems to me to have either subsided or become latent since the issuance of the President’s orders relative to military disposition on the international boundary. This event produced an apparently salutary effect in bringing the Government to a realizing sense of its responsibilities, and those people who are not active revolutionists to a sobering appreciation of the gravity of the situation. There has been less anathema, less use of violent adjectives, and while a considerable portion of public opinion inclines to the belief that our military activity is due to a desire to discharge our international obligations, there is another portion which adheres to the opinion that we are moved solely by the obligation of affording protection to the lives and property of our nationals should chaotic conditions eventuate. I have not been able to detect anywhere the existence of an opinion that our actions have been dictated by ambition or the desire for national aggrandizement. There is no such (Opinion existing among the serious minded people of Mexico.
For the present, I do not believe that American lives and property outside of the revolutionary zone are in danger, but what might happen in event of collisions on the border or an appearance of aggression it would not be safe to conjecture. A large number of Americans, principally women and children, have crossed the border and more are leaving every day.
[The rest of the dispatch consists of the ambassador’s opinion of the probable ability of the new cabinet to cope with the situation, and his belief that the revolution is as much directed against President Díaz personally as against “those evil influences that have stood in the background.”]
I am [etc.],