File No. 812.404/2.
The Secretary of State to the French Chargé d’Affaires. 146
Washington , August 3, 1914 .
My Dear Mr. Chargé d’affaires: Referring to previous correspondence in regard to the treatment of religious orders in Mexico by the Constitutionalists, I beg to inform you that the Department is in receipt of a telegram from the American Vice Consul at Saltillo, Mexico, dated August 1st, in which he states that the Governor of Nuevo Leon, on July 31st, told him that the decree with reference to religious orders was a revolutionary measure necessitated by the exigencies of present conditions, and that, when normal conditions again prevailed, the decree would be subject to the action of the State [Page 879] legislature. The Vice Consul adds that the Governor of Tamaulipas stated to him, on the same day, that he had not closed a single Catholic church in the State, but that he had expelled every Catholic priest therefrom.
I am [etc.]
- Same to the Spanish Ambassador.↩