Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 7, 1911
File No. 812.00/1458.
The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith to the Department copy in original and translation of Mr. de la Barra’s note of the 17th instant in reply to my note of the 15th which was sent under instructions from the Department.
I have [etc.],
The Minister for Foreign Affairs to the American Ambassador.
Mr. Ambassador: I have received your excellency’s note of the 15th instant in which you inform me that by private and official advices you learn that ii the engagement at Agua Prieta on the 13th instant between federal and revolutionary forces two American citizens were killed and eleven others wounded including some children.
Your excellency informs me that in view of this occurrence you have received instructions from your Government to the effect that encounters of this character, which may endanger the property and persons of American citizens in their own territory, should be avoided.
In reply to the note under reference I have to bring to the attention of you excellency that, surely having been badly informed, you indicate to me that it was the federal troops who fired into the town of Douglas, causing the death and wounding of which the Mexican Government is the first to mourn. But the truth is that, according to the official information received by this Government as well as according to press reports, the Federal soldiers did not fire at the citizens of Douglas but that the revolutionists—and none the less because there were among them American citizens who wrongfully take part in the affairs o: Mexico—were the doers of this clearly punishable deed, and whom the Government will make an effort to punish adequately.
I particularly call your excellency’s attention to the contents of the message of John Dean, a citizen of Douglas, the publication of which, according to the press, has been authorized by the United States War Department, and from which it appears that the greater portion of the individuals who formed the forces of López, which took a position parallel to the railroad, are American citizens who are fighting on the side of the Mexican rebels, and that they were precisely the ones that caused the deaths and wounds that your excellency sc justly laments.
On the other hand, even supposing that, which has not been confirmed, the Federal soldiers had fired toward the town of Douglas, it would always have been unintentional, since it is known that the Mexican Government wishes to avoid by all possible means a conflict with the United States; a Nation tc which it is bound by bonds of sympathy as old as they are strong. Those fatal accidents may be placed among those which your excellency’s Government, with sufficient reason, counts as inevitable in the case of an armed conflict and which, for one reason or another, can not form the grounds for claims of any character.
The Mexican Government would deplore it extremely if the American Government, wrongly interpreting the incidents to which I refer, should consider that the Mexican troops had any intention of killing or wounding the peaceful citizens of that country, since, apart from the fact that such a thing is contrary to the elementary rules of law, the notable fact exists that the Federal soldiers did no more than defend themselves from those that attacked them in a town of which they were in possession, and when their enemy’s sole aim was, as in reality it always is, to embroil this Government in difficulties with the Government of the United States.
Since this point is under discussion I must indicate to your excellency the surprise with which the President has viewed the circumstance that, according to private information of this department and press reports, individuals of the American Army crossed to the Mexican side, and, not content with this flagrant violation of neutrality (which could be attributed to the confusion that exists with respect to the precise place at which the international boundary begins or ends) persuaded the Federal soldiers to cease defending themselves and, moreover, disarmed them and delivered their arms to the revolutionists at the suggestion of the latter.
There is a very clear case, which I am sure your excellency’s Government will know how to punish adequately. During the engagement one of the rebels crossed to American territory with his rifle broken; an American policeman [Page 463] fixed it for him without delay and the rebel returned to the Mexican side, firing with the gun that he had just received.
Furthermore it appears, according to reliable advices that I have at hand, corroborated by the press reports, that Lieut. Troncoso was wounded by firing from the American customhouse, without definite knowledge as to whether the doers of the deed were rebels in possession of that point or their American sympathizers who happened to be there.
In any event, your excellency, believe me that although on account of its importance the case referred to is a deplorable one—as it has caused the death or wounding of innocent persons and of others who, either as sympathizers with those that attacked the town or as mere spectators, deliberately exposed themselves in the Tine of fire—such accidents can not justly be attributed to the Mexican soldiers, since in respect to the first mentioned, as I have already said, they were not wounded by our soldiers, and, in respect to the others, they are victims of their own carelessness and curiosity in observing affairs from which it would have been easy for them to have stayed away, rather than of the armed engagement which took place on Mexican territory between Mexican troops and rebels aided by foreigners.
To conclude this point I should bring to your excellency’s attention an incident of which official notice has been received by this department. It happened that some days ago the comisario politico of Agua Prieta sought to dig some trenches on Mexican territory with the object of defending the town from a possible attack of rebels. Mayor Gardner, who was then apparently commanding the American troops at that point, spoke to the comisario, telling him that the trenches should not be dug, as their effect would be to draw the fire of the enemy toward the town of Douglas. The comisario, although not considering that Mayor Gardner’s observations were reasonable, yet not wishing to proceed without consultation, asked the governor of Sonora for his views, and the governor referred the matter to the departments of gobernación and foreign relations. To-day the press reports state that at exactly the point at which Mayor Gardner prohibited the digging of the trenches, Commander López, chief of the rebels, is digging them, surely causing the same danger to the town and effectively contributing to the difficulties, as these defenses will have to be attacked by artillery, which is the only effective method of destroying them.
It is far from this department to suppose that such things happen with the knowledge of the American Government; but it [this department] is sure that the different departments of that institution are sometimes badly served by inferior authorities, notoriously partial to the rebels and desirous of giving them aid.1
At the same time I have the honor to inform your excellency that immediately upon receiving the news that shots had reached American territory in the engagement between the Government troops and the rebels this department informed the war department, so that it might immediately give the commanders of the Federal forces orders that all engagements near the border which might result in damage to the interests, lives, and property of American citizens should be avoided; since, although many of these citizens lend effectual aid to the rebels, and even join them to give them material support, many innocent persons might suffer the consequences of engagements in which they had taken no part. And now, again, notwithstanding the above mentioned incidents, I am repeating to the war department that it should make recommendations to the military commanders in this sense.
I beg your excellency to transmit the contents of this note to your Government, especially those points relating to the abuses committed by the persons to whom I have referred, that it may, as I am sure it will, find means to remedy this abnormal situation; since this department as well as the Mexican Government counts on the respect for law and justice which has been the constant policy of the American Government in its international relations and general policy.
I avail [etc.],
- “Lejos esta de la mente de este Ministerio el suponer que tales cosas acontezcan con conocimiento del Gobierno Americano; pero sí está seguro de que los diferentes departa-mentos de aquella institución están algunas veces mal servidos por autoridades inferiores, notoriamente parciales a los revoltosos y deseosos de prestarles ayuda.”↩