File No. 312.93/19.
The American Consul at Mazatlan to the Secretary of State .
Mazatlan , March 17, 1912 .
Sir: I have the honor to inclose confirmation copy of my telegram of even date.3 During the last week notices have been appearing in the papers, calling on the unions and clubs to attend a public meeting to be held on Saturday night in the Plaza de la Republica, for a conference on the Asiatic race, and on Friday programme was circulated, one of the speeches was to be on “He who protects the Chinese is a ‘ traitor to his country.”
All indication clearly indicated that the object of the meeting was to inflame the populace, cause an uprising, and compel the Chinese either by force or through fear to abandon the city.
The Department instruction of Nov. 14, 1911,1 also that of the Embassy, placed me in the position of protecting the Chinese in case of necessity. I therefore called on the authorities and asked for the suppression of the meeting. Orders were issued for copies of the [Page 927] intended speeches to be submitted to me—I found same to be obscene and inflammatory—and again requested that the meeting should be prohibited. My request was granted.
I am aware that I may have gone further than my instructions warranted, but considered that it would be far easier to prevent an uprising than it would be to protect the Chinese once the outbreak had taken place; hence my action, which I submit for approval or otherwise.
Had the meeting taken place and an uprising resulted the authorities could not have coped with same, and the consequences would have been serious.
I have [etc.]
- Not printed.↩
- See For. Rel. 1911, pp. 615–618.↩