File No. 812.00/2279.
[Translation.]
Washington, August 14, 1911.
Excellency: The Government of Mexico has heard that Giuseppe Garibaldi, the well known agitator of whom so much has been said in the newspapers and now residing in the city of New York, has bought of the Winchester Co. 1,000 rifles that are ready to be forwarded to the Mexican Republic for the purpose of fomenting disturbances, and has instructed me to apply, as I hereby have the honor to do, to your excellency and ask that you will interpose your [Page 512] good offices to prevent the shipment of said arms, which are no doubt not intended for legitimate trade, but rather to infringe in a more or less devious way the neutrality of the United States to the injury of both the Mexican Republic and this country, for the undertaking of adventurers like Garibaldi against the peace and prosperity of friendly neighboring nations constitute a menace to the honest trade carried on by the United States with the said nations, and to the lawful interests whose stability rests on hot having the highways of commerce converted into a means to the end of professional agitators in their criminal undertakings.
Duly thanking, etc.,