File No. 312.51/80.
The Secretary of State to Vice Consul Silliman.
Washington, August 4, 1914—9 p.m.
We are informed three Christian Brothers, the President, Adrien Astruc, Professor Adolphus Giles, both of them French, and Father Vega, Mexican, were shot June 24, 4 p.m., by order of General Chao. Fourteen others banished, and now at Santa Fe, New Mexico, having been forced to make a payment of $5,000 ransom. By order of the same General, 22 priests Zacatecas threatened death unless they paid hundred thousand dollars, and upon payment they were arrested and banished, and sent to El Paso.
Lay the above before General Carranza and again impress upon him the seriousness of these acts and urgently insist that the parties guilty be adequately punished.