File No. 412.11/129.
The Secretary of State to the American Consul at Nogales.
Washington, August 3, 1912.
Referring to your telegram of August first, all Douglas claimants should be immediately informed by you that while the Department can not undertake to advise them whether or not they should accept the sums offered by the Mexican Consul in settlement of their claims against Mexico (for the reason, among others, that Congress now has before it a proposition contemplating the investigation of the El Paso and Douglas incidents by the War Department), nevertheless the claimants are under absolutely no compulsion to accept the proffered sums, and that if same are taken by them in satisfaction of their claims it must be with the understanding that it is done of their own free will and that any such attempted action by the Government of Mexico as depositing such sums with the Department would have no bearing whatsoever upon the amounts of their claims. You should point out that a long time ago the Department reserved the right, in the event Mexico did not make adequate offers of settlement to the complainants, to espouse the claims diplomatically.