File No. 812.00/15679.
The Brazilian Minister to Mexico to the Secretary of State.
Mexico City, July 29, 1915—4 p.m.
692. I have been requested to transmit to you the following message:
The following was unanimously adopted in special meeting at Mexico City by the board of the American Society of Mexico on July 28, to be sent by any route possible to the State Department at Washington and to the press and people of the United States:
The American residents appeal once more to their Government and people in behalf of the suffering millions of pacific men, women and children in this country who are victims of hunger, cruelty and violence. These conditions put the gravest and most urgent responsibility upon the United States which not only has passively permitted them but has promoted them with arms and ammunition and by encouragement to political adventurers who have prostituted the name of liberty and the cause of human rights.
Americans and other foreigners stand aghast and wonder whether they can be living in the twentieth century and in a country bordering on the United States, which has made itself responsible to the world for protection of life and property here and yet does nothing more than send repeated warnings that are derided by half-savage men drunk with ill-gotten power and the spirit of graft and hate.
For many months the Americans here, driven almost to desperation, have tried to bring their Government to a realization of the awful situation and begged that the American people be informed. Their request, long denied, was finally conceded in part by the President in his own statement of June 2, reciting briefly the conditions in Mexico. These conditions, then hardly endurable, are much worse now and the apparent inactivity of the Government at Washington fills Mexico with despair.
There is not even a semblance of Government here at the capital and we are living on a smouldering volcano. The entire city council has been imprisoned without cause. [Page 731] We have seen three changes of armed government in thirty days. There is no communication with the world except by special messenger. Last week an American messenger was seized a few hours out of this city; the American flag torn to bits and an official mail packet from Vera Cruz for the Brazilian Minister in charge of American interests was rifled and destroyed by Emiliano Zapata in person. The son of the Chilean Minister, and attaché of the Legation in the party, was robbed and stripped. A wealthy and cultured Mexican, mistaken for a Spaniard, was bound and dragged for fiendish sport until nearly dead, then carried off to be shot. Two street cars were stopped in the city yesterday by soldiers and the passengers robbed of valuables and clothing and otherwise abused. These are only examples.
Unworthy Americans like Charles A. Douglas, Henry Allen Tupper and certain correspondents in the pay of Carranza try to convince the world that Mexico is not hungry and Red Cross work not needed, thus seeking to give the lie to thousands of their fellow countrymen in Mexico, including Mr. O’Connor, special agent sent here by the American Red Cross.
The suffering from hunger here and elsewhere has become appalling and the number of deaths from that cause, reported as ten to twelve daily in this city, is increasing rapidly. Mr. O’Connor has been here one month and has not yet succeeded in bringing a pound of food into the capital or to receive even a message from Washington regarding the work.
He has been requested by the International Committee not to try to purchase any of the little remaining foodstuffs in the city because that would raise still higher the present fabulous prices. He has bought here seventy-five tons of chick peas and some meat for making soup. That will last a very short time and unless relief comes meanwhile the Red Cross must suspend its efforts and close the headquarters almost before it has begun. There is no [omission] for the hungry babies of the poor. Hunger affects not only the poor but also the middle classes and those who were wealthy a year or two ago. The International Relief Committee with great difficulty secured an empty train and started it one hundred miles north a month ago to bring corn that was bought last March but which the committee has not been able to move. A Villa Conventionist commander would not allow the train to reach its destination. The [omission] of the committee finally gathered five carloads of food and arrived two days ago within forty miles of this city, when they were turned back by soldiers with the information that no one could bring food into the capital, although this was to be given free of charge by the foreigners to the starving Mexicans. Carranza, since he went to Vera Cruz eight months ago, has never sent nor permitted food to come to the capital from his territory. Nothing can be done except by bribery. It is the general belief the food supplies can not be brought in quantity into the city unless protected.
The Mexican Herald, the only English periodical left, was seized and suppressed last week by the pretended authorities here in contemptuous defiance of protests by the Brazilian Minister. The real reason for the seizure was made plain when the confiscators took possession of the Herald building and issued their own official organ there, using the Herald’s plant; also paper and materials to the value of more than 30,000 pesos.
One of the largest stores in the city was burned last night. The fire engines failed to arrive in time because the outgoing troops had taken all the horses of the fire department. The Mexican paper peso, worth approximately fifty cents American money two years ago, is now worth less than five cents, and the Mexican finds it much harder to get that peso now than two years ago. Under such conditions and with food supplies practically exhausted the suffering can be imagined.
A messenger from El Oro brings reports that the soldiers have seized all the corn there and that dog meat is being sold in the streets. The few reports coming from outside the city nearly all show the same condition of distress.
If something is not done by the United States or other foreign governments to open communications, supply food, and stop the killing of men, outraging of women and destruction of property, there will be still graver complications for the world to settle in Mexico. The breaking point has been reached and foreigners who have long counselled self-restraint are becoming desperate because of what they see around them and what they suffer themselves.