File No. 704.9312/10.

[Inclosure.]

The American Ambassador to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Subsecretary: I have the honor to inform your excellency that this embassy is in receipt of telegraphic advices from the American consul at Tapachula indicating that there is a complete absence of authority at that place and that conditions there are serious. He states that there are murmurs on the part of the lower classes against the Chinese and that the president of the Chinese colony, which numbers 500, is an American citizen, and that he, together with the members of his colony, is fearful that they will be massacred, and has requested asylum at the American consulate in case of danger.

In view of the foregoing I earnestly request that your excellency will do whatever is possible to have American lives and property in Tapachula immediately and adequately protected.

It would seem that on humanitarian grounds such action as is possible should be taken in behalf of the Chinese, in order to prevent a recurrence of so regrettable an incident as that recently taking place at TorreĆ³n.

I avail, etc.,

Henry Lane Wilson.