File No. 812.00/15752½.
General Villa to Messrs. Llorente and Bonilla.34
Your telegram of yesterday. Do not remember just now the details of your proposals to the White House Government, but our desire is that the country return as soon as possible to its normal life; that a legal government born of the popular will may be established; that the courts of the Republic may work regularly and free from all coercion; that the land be distributed; that the condition of workingmen be improved; that a lasting peace, which may guarantee the welfare and property of Mexico, be procured; that Carranza may not reach the executive office of the Nation only because of his personal ambition, but that the person to be elevated to that office be freely selected and appointed by the Mexican people.
We ourselves have not and do not request a peace conference from our enemy, but we do not oppose any peace parleys; on the contrary, we are willing to make all kinds of efforts and sacrifices in order to stop, in the shortest possible time, the calamities of war and thereby restore peace to the country. As a proof of this we point out the prompt action with which we met the friendly suggestions made some time ago by President Wilson to the principal factional leaders now under arms in Mexico.
- Copy received at the Department of State on August 19, 1915.↩