File No. 812.00/7129.
The Secretary of State to the American Consul at Matamoros.
Washington, April 24, 1913.
Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 112 of April 7, 1913, explaining your action in allowing General Estrada to enter your Consulate on the 17th of February, 1913.
While the Department is not inclined to disapprove your action under the circumstances as you explain them, it is not entirely clear that it was necessary for such protection to be extended over so long a period of time, especially in view of the proximity of the international border.
In this connection it seems pertinent to invite your attention to the Department’s standing instructions that, while indisposed to direct its representatives to deny temporal shelter to any person whose life may be immediately threatened, this Government does not sanction the usage of asylum and enjoins upon its representatives the avoidance of all pretexts for its exercise.
Your action therefore in similar cases which may arise in the future should be limited to the affording of protection only when it appears to be absolutely necessary for the preservation of life and should be in the nature of temporary refuge. It should be distinctly understood [Page 797] that the protection extended should be strictly limited as indicated, and that no promise of shelter should be given in advance of an emergency seeming to call therefor.
I am [etc.]