File No. 312.115/169.
Consul General Hanna to the Secretary of State.
Monterey, March 21, 1915.
Referring to Department’s March 18, it is understood and declared to be the intention of the authorities that contribution from natives and foreigners is not a tax for war purposes but for relieving the destitute condition of the poor and is to be used entirely as a charity fund for buying food for them. Some were assessed heavier than others, they being accused of robbing the poor by charging high prices for the first necessities of life for such things as common food, ordinary clothing and articles necessary for the common people. In consideration of what the American people and the American Red Cross have been doing for the poor and what I am still doing on my own account for more than one thousand needy families, our people here were not taxed. On a few foreigners a high tax was placed but on the greater part of them the tax was either moderate, light or nothing.