File No. 812.00/10735a.

The Secretary of State to all diplomatic missions of the United States.

[Circular telegram.]

No one outside Mexico can now accommodate her affairs. The withdrawal of all moral or material support from without is the in [Page 447] dispensable first step toward a solution from within. From many sources which it deems trustworthy the Government of the United States has received information which convinces it that there is a more hopeful prospect of peace, of the security of property and of the early payment of foreign obligations if Mexico is left to the forces now reckoning with one another there than there would be if anything by way of a mere change of personnel were effected at Mexico City. There are no influences at Mexico City that can be counted on to do anything more than try to perpetuate and strengthen the selfish oligarchical and military interests which it is clear the rest of the country can be made to endure only by constant warfare and a pitiless harrying of the north. The President is so fully convinced of this, after months of the most careful study of the situation at close range, that he no longer feels justified in maintaining an irregular position as regards the contending parties in the matter of neutrality. He intends, therefore, almost immediately, to remove the inhibition on the exportation of arms and ammunition from the United States into Mexico. Settlement by civil war carried to its bitter conclusion is a terrible thing, but it must come now whether we wish it or not, unless some outside power is to sweep Mexico with its armed forces from end to end; which would be the beginning of a still more difficult problem.

By removing the inhibition on the exportation of arms and ammunition into Mexico the Government of the United States puts itself, and intends to put itself, in the same position as other nations whose citizens have all along been at liberty to sell what they pleased to Mexico. The Government of the United States deems it essential to the settlement of her present difficulties that Mexico should be treated as any other country would be which was torn by civil war. The circumstance that Mexico is for the time being unable to meet her financial obligations creates no novel or exceptional international rights; and she will be the sooner able to meet those obligations and resume her full international responsibilities if she is left to determine her own affairs by domestic force and then by domestic counsel.

Bryan
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