File No. 312.115/148.
Consular Agent Phillips to the Secretary of State.
Guaymas, February 25, 1915.
Sir: In obedience to a published decree dated in Guaymas on December 9, 1913, issued and signed by the Mexican Federal Provisional Governor, the reigning authority at that time in Guaymas, all merchants and property owners were called upon to loan the State of Sonora an amount equal to 5 per cent of capital and property values upon which such merchants and owners had been paying their legal taxes, it being decreed that failure to make this loan would result in certain penalties. The American citizen merchants and owners also the German, French and other foreign as well as native owners, delivered this forced loan, protesting verbally. The Consular representatives submitted the matter to their governments.
The American representative at that time, Mr. C. D. Taylor, received a wired answer from the State Department which instructed [Page 987] him to inform the Department if any other foreigners obtained a refund of the loan. It transpired later that the German merchants did, after appealing to their Ambassador in Mexico City, actually receive in cash the entire refund.
I therefore respectfully request that a demand be made on the Mexican Government to refund to the following American merchants and property owners the amounts loaned and for which they each obtained legal receipts which I herewith enclose.
Your [etc.]