File No. 312.52/55a.
The Secretary of State to the American Consul at Chihuahua.
Washington , December 12, 1913 .
Spanish Embassy here is advised that Villa has ordered all Spaniards in or about Chihuahua to abandon their property and leave the district in ten days on penalty of being shot. You are instructed to represent to him courteously but in the most impressive manner the hardships involved in the enforcement of such an order against large numbers of persons who must in the main be innocent of any complicity in the pending contest in Mexico, as well as the horror that would be felt throughout the civilized world by the infliction of such a penalty for failure to comply with the order. You are instructed to give to this matter immediate and urgent attention and to report by telegraph the result of your interview.