File No. 412.11/146.
The Secretary of State to the American Chargé d’Affaires.
Washington, December 19, 1912.
Sir: The Department has received your No. 1800 of the 7th instant, transmitting a copy of a note dated the 2d of the same month, in which the Minister for Foreign Affairs informs you that the Government of Mexico declines responsibility for the losses suffered by Daniel E. Sherron et al., on the ground that no State is legally responsible for damages and prejudices which during an insurrection may be suffered by foreigners at the hands of rebels. You also enclose a copy of a note of similar tenor which the Minister addressed to the Minister of Germany in relation to the claim of Otto Katterfeldt, a German subject.
In reply you are instructed to write a note to the Mexican Foreign Office acknowledging the receipt of its note of December 2 regarding the claims of Sherron et al., and informing it that the Government of the United States cannot admit the existence of any such unqualified rule as that stated by the Mexican Government, and that full reservation must be made of the right of this Government further to press this matter in connection with the hundreds of other claims [Page 985] which, it is now apparent, this Government must ultimately present to the Government of Mexico for settlement.
I am [etc.]