File No. 125.29781/38.
Consul Letcher to the Secretary of State.
Chihuahua, April 2, 1914.
Have received a telegram from Acting Consular Agent, Parral, informing me that he was arrested yesterday by the local authorities on a charge of passing counterfeit money but had been paroled for twenty-four hours. I believe the charges ridiculous and the arrest of Consular Agent an outrage. For the sake of the prestige of consular officers in Mexico for the future I trust that the Department will find it expedient to cause it to be made clear that the arrest of such officials for trivial causes will not be tolerated. It is estimated that almost as much counterfeit money circulates in this state at the present moment as does money of legal issue. Two Americans, employees of Alvarado Mining and Milling Company, were imprisoned at Parral for the same thing day before yesterday, although all false money issued was redeemed. There is a probability of malice in those cases because company named buys fiat money for its needs in the open market instead of from the state authorities at fixed rate in gold of one dollar for three pesos, as most other operating American companies have contracted to do.