File No. 312.52/486.
The Spanish Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington, December 11, 1914.
My Dear Mr. Secretary. It is with a very deep regret that I have received your note of yesterday informing me of the telegram you have received from the American Consul at Vera Cruz stating that two Spanish subjects, Vicente Vidal and Eduardo Sabugal, had been shot at Tampico by order of Governor Caballero.
I at once telegraphed a resume of your note to my Government.
[Page 837]A telegram which I have subsequently received from the Spanish Consul at Monterey confirms the information given to the Department by Mr. Bevan, American Consul at Tampico. The two Spaniards who have been shot were respectable law abiding citizens, whose conduct had always been praiseworthy, and their execution, without any form of trial will fill with indignation the heart of every Spaniard in Mexico.
I thank you most sincerely for everything which you inform me has been done to save their lives, and I trust that you will spare no effort to secure the release of Julian Zorilla who is menaced by the same fate as his unfortunate compatriots Vidal and Sabugal, and that you will endeavor to impress upon General Carranza that such savage and inhuman methods, on the part of his subordinates, are not to be tolerated.
Believe me [etc.]