711.12/225½a
The Secretary of State to President Wilson
My Dear Mr. President: Mr. Tumulty informs me that you are to see Senators Hitchcock and Fall this afternoon in regard to the Mexican situation. I have not troubled you with the Jenkins case which is of considerable complexity as to facts and as to law because there was no possibility of that case developing a situation which could possibly warrant intervention in Mexico.50 As to this I am sure that the Foreign Relations Committee is in entire accord.
The real Mexican situation is the whole series of outrages and wrongs which Americans in Mexico have suffered during the Carranza administration. There is no doubt that the complaints are numerous and justified and that the indictment which can be drawn against Carranza will appeal very strongly to the people and arouse a very general indignation. The danger is that Congress, in view of the facts which will be reported undoubtedly by Senator Fall’s sub-Committee on Mexico, will demand drastic action or put us in a position where it will be very difficult to treat the matter with a proper deliberation.
[Page 568]I have seen this coming for some time, knowing the vast amount of material collected by the Fall Committee and it was with that purpose that I sought to divert attention to the Jenkins case which I knew could not possibly result in a rupture between the two Governments.
I thought before you saw these two Senators you should be advised as to the real question which is, as I have said, Carranza’s past record of hostility toward this Government and not the Jenkins case, which can be handled by the Department without endangering our relations with Mexico.
Faithfully yours,
- For correspondence previously printed on the Jenkins case, see Foreign Relations, 1919, vol. ii, pp. 578 ff., and ibid., 1920, vol. iii, pp. 250 ff.↩