File No. 312.52/305.
The Secretary of State to Special Agent Carothers.
Washington, June 2, 1914.
With reference to the confiscation of cotton by the Constitutionalists, Department begs to inform you that it has this day received from Spanish Ambassador advices to effect that Constitutionalists have not only refused to permit Spaniards to redeem their cotton on payment of $15 per bale, but that they have refused $20 from a great many Spaniards. Department hopes that you will succeed in convincing Constitutionalist authorities of the inadvisability and inexpediency of putting Spaniards in a class by themselves and demanding from them more redemption than has been insisted upon from other foreigners. It seems to this Department that the treatment of the Spaniards at Chihuahua and Torreon has been very severe and that Constitutionalists should consider the advisability of permitting Spaniards to redeem their cotton upon payment of same amount as has been accepted from other foreigners.