File No. 312.41/137.
Consul Letcher to the Secretary of State.
Chihuahua, February 26, 1914.
Have just received from General Villa a reply to my note of yesterday embracing the substance of your telegram of February [Page 855] 24, in which he informs me that he will permit a commission composed of two representatives of our Government, two British subjects, two American physicians, the widow and any other of Benton’s family and such representatives as he may name to witness the exhumation of Benton’s body and its examination to their satisfaction. He finds himself unable, however, to reverse his refusal to permit removal of the remains and insists that body must be reinterred after examination in the same grave in which it now rests. Furthermore General Villa has voluntarily offered to place at my disposal a special train for bringing the commission named from Juarez to Chihuahua and returning them to the first named place. The body is now interred in the principal cemetery of this place. I venture to propose that I be authorized to go to Juarez by this special train to assemble the commission and the relatives of Benton to bring them to Chihuahua under my special charge and otherwise to exercise your authority over the examination until terminated. The plan as suggested, in my opinion, offers most expeditious method. Trip back and forth and necessary arrangement in El Paso can be effected in thirty-six hours. Local commission including physicians would not seem expedient.