File No. 812.00/11514.
Chargé O’Shaughnessy to the Secretary of State.
Mexico City , April 14, 1914, 11 p.m.
854. Referring to your No. 747, April 13, 8 p.m. I spent two hours with General Huerta this morning. He said that he [omission] that his first declaration promising an adequate investigation, etc., would close the incident; that Colonel Hinojosa’s action, the result of ignorance and not of animosity, extenuated the said action; that General Zaragoza’s voluntary expression of regret would, all things considered, be accepted by the United States Government especially as it is dealing with a weaker nation than itself and one torn with revolution; that in judging his attitude regarding saluting the flag my Government should not forget that while he is not recognized by the United States he is recognized by all the great powers, the entire Federal army and the majority of Mexicans; that he is therefore in a position in which he must uphold the dignity and sovereignty of Mexico lest he break his oath of office and be mercilessly criticised by the educated public opinion of Mexico.
I then said, “But what will this situation come to? Your country has been torn with revolution for three years and is gradually being materially ruined and a race is growing up in the surroundings of bloodshed, rapine and corruption.”
To this he answered that no one regretted the present state of affairs more than he did; that the misunderstanding of him by the Government of the United States had largely helped to prolong the state of affairs to which I referred; and that, knowing the great and [omission] which had been played by the Government of the United [Page 461] States in the promotion of the peaceful settlement of international disputes, he was glad to suggest that the whole question of the arrest of American marines at Tampico be placed before the Hague Tribunal according to agreement to which the Mexican Government was a party as well as the United States. He said that he considered that this was an ideal case for the Hague Tribunal which would seem to have been created in order to avoid regrets for actions between the two countries. He also referred to one of articles of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which, he said, fifty years before The Hague was ever thought of, showed the desire of the Mexican people to avoid any friction with the United States which would lead to serious difficulties, and that he had, since his assumption of the Presidency, done everything within his power to avoid such, as, for instance, in the case of wrongs to Americans, to right them.