File No. 812.00/14322.
The
Confidential Agent of the Provisional [Conventionist] Government to the Secretary of State.
memorandum.
Enrique C. Llorente, Confidential Agent of the Provisional Government of
Mexico, presents his respectful compliments to the Honorable [Page 646] William Jennings Bryan,
Secretary of State of the United States, and by instruction of his
Government, has the honor to transmit, herewith, copy of a telegram
received this afternoon from the President of the Sovereign Convention
of Mexico, Roque Ganzalez Garza, charged by the Convention with the
Executive Power of the Nation, following the removal of ex-President
Gutierrez, relative to the situation in Mexico.
Confidential Agency of the Provisional
Government of Mexico,
Washington, D. C.
, January 20, 1915.
[Inclosure—Extract.]
The President of the Convention, Gonzalez Garza, to Confidential Agent
Llorente.
My Government, which emanated from the Sovereign Convention, has
received offers from private citizens to take up arms in defense of
the city and of the Convention. It has not, however, been deemed
necessary to accept such offers, for the reason that the situation
in the capital is sufficiently safeguarded with the force already at
hand, belonging to the Convention and to the Divisions of the North
and South. General Villa has control over the entire North after
having defeated the Robles Brigade and the column of General
Elizondo. General Villa is now in Queretaro with 25,000 men and will
march against San Luis and Tampico, by which movement all the
central part of the Republic will come under the control of the
Convention Government. The greatest part of the troops which
evacuated Mexico City on Saturday have now returned and placed
themselves at the orders of the Convention and the Commanders of the
Division of the North. The Convention proposes to follow a policy of
conciliation with all desirable and useful elements.
With this end in view, the Convention has proposed [to] General
Eulalio Gutierrez that the capital of the Republic be declared
neutral in order that preliminary peace parleys may be initiated,
simultaneously agreeing to grant an armistice throughout the
Republic. The Convention likewise intends to address General
Venustiano Carranza in this sense.
The lack of cohesion on the part of these elements, Carranza and
Gutierrez, will facilitate the military operations of this
Government.
Mexico City,
January 19,
1915.
