File No. 812.00/11485.
Chargé O’Shaughnessy to the Secretary of State.
Mexico City, April 12, 1914, 9 a.m.
844. Your 741, April 11, 9 a.m. This telegram, owing to the ignorance of the censor, who was kept on the cable last night, did not reach the Embassy until half past eleven. Owing to the urgency of the situation, I suggested that the Sub-Secretary of Foreign Affairs come immediately to the Embassy to discuss the matter, which he did at half past one. I showed him your telegram 740, and told him that the incident was fraught with the greatest consequences, and suggested to him that he see the President this morning at half past seven, and impress upon him the necessity of quick action in acceding to the demands of Admiral Mayo, now supported by the President of the United States, and that I would see him at the Foreign Office between nine and ten and if necessary go myself to the President in case he should not have come to reason. The Sub-Secretary suggested that it would make the act much easier for Mexico if the United States would be satisfied were the flag saluted on the Dolphin by a Mexican battery or gunboat, as he feared that the hoisting of the American flag on a Mexican public edifice (as, he asserts, Admiral Mayo demands), besides being humiliating, might lead to serious anti-American disorders throughout Mexico. Will this salute to our flag be answered according to custom by a salute to the Mexican flag?