File No. 812.6363/54.
The British Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, May 8, 1914.
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have sent to Sir Lionel Garden the telegram from our Consul at Tampico, a paraphrase of which I handed to you yesterday; and have added that as the oil wells in that district are close together, and the British companies owning some of them employ United States citizens, it would be quite impossible to draw any distinction of British or American nationality between either wells or employees: and that all sympathy would be alienated both here and elsewhere if these properties were destroyed.
I am [etc.]