File No. 412.11/71.
The Acting Secretary of State to the American Ambassador.
Washington, April 8, 1912.
Sir: The Department has received your No. 1327, of the 23d ultimo, stating that you are receiving [etc.]
In reply you are advised that you will, in the first instance, upon notice of injuries or threatened injuries to American citizens, at once make appropriate representations to the Mexican Government, with all reservations as to future action; you should then send a claims circular, following generally the course outlined in Department’s instructions of June 16, 1911, relative to claims arising out of the so-called Madero Revolution.
It would also doubtless be well, in connection with the procedure last referred to, to invite, for their guidance and information, the attention of the claimants to the following principles of international law: That a claimant against a foreign government is not generally regarded (subject to certain exceptions not at present necessary to consider) as entitled to diplomatic intervention by his own government until he has exhausted his legal remedies in the courts of the country against which he makes the claim; and that a government is not, as a general rule, considered to be responsible for damages caused to alien residents by revolutions when the revolutionary disturbances have passed beyond the control of the parent government.
I am [etc.]