File No. 812.00/16115.
Mr. Parker,
representing American interests in Mexico, to the Secretary of State.
[Extract.]
No. 75.]
Mexico City,
August 29, 1915.
Sir: With reference to the Department’s
telegram dated August 13, 6 p.m., in which I was instructed to translate
and deliver immediately to General Emiliano Zapata and all other
prominent military and civil authorities in central and southern Mexico
a note [etc.], I have the honor to inform the Department that I sent
copies [etc.].
There are enclosed the formal replies to the note of General Emiliano
Zapata, General Francisco Pacheco, General Palafox and Licenciado
Eduardo Baz, Governor of the State of Mexico. There is also enclosed the
reply of Licenciado Ignacio Borrego, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the
Conventionist Government at Toluca, who replies for the President of the
Convention, Licenciado Francisco Lagos Cházaro.
General Zapata, in his acknowledgement to me, states, in reference to the
information given in the latter part of the Department’s telegram above
referred to relative to General Villa, that he notes with satisfaction
the attitude of General Villa.
I have [etc.]
[Page 740]
[Inclosure 1—Translation—Extract.]
General Emiliano Zapata’s reply.
Ejército Libertador,
General
Headquarters.
I have had the honor to receive the communication [etc.]
In common with the chiefs under my command, I cordially accept your
fraternal mediation for the purpose of finding a basis of agreement
between the contending factions in our country.
The Sovereign Revolutionary Convention has called upon the
Carrancistas to lay aside all personal feeling and, inspired by the
supreme revolutionary ideal, meet with us and our companions of the
Division of the North for the purpose of working in common for the
aggrandizement of the Mexican nation. But unfortunately our cordial
advances have met no response, and this has compelled us to continue
the struggle against the wilful group of compatriots who are trying
at any cost to impose the personality of a man who, like Don
Venustiano Carranza, seeks to become the dictator of the whole
revolutionary movement.
Nevertheless we understand that it is our duty to come to terms with
the real revolutionaries whenever they withdraw from all allegiance
to a First Chief adorned with all the attributes of sovereignty and
by his own will alone transformed into a military leader, political
director, supreme legislator, and arbiter and guardian of the
Revolution.
Therefore since we, and with us all the chiefs composing the
Villa-Zapata union, are formally represented in the Sovereign
Revolutionary Convention, to the decisions of which we have agreed
to conform, I believe that it is this Convention which should
participate in the pacifist conferences, in the name and in
representation of us all.
I therefore most respectfully decline, in favor of the Convention,
the kind invitation that is extended to me, and will have my
representative in that body make one of the group of commissioners
which it will send to the said conferences.
I avail [etc.]
Emiliano Zapata,
Commander in Chief of the Liberating
Army.
General Headquarters,
Tlaltizapán
, August 26, 1915.
[Inclosure 2—Translation—Extract.]
Reply of the Conventionist Minister of War,
General Pacheco.
War Office,
Huitzlac, Morelos,
August 24, 1915.
I am wholly in favor of holding the conference mentioned, but only on
the following bases:
- 1.
- The intervention of the representatives of the friendly
Nations shall be limited exclusively to arrangements for the
conference, without in the least touching our national
autonomy.
- 2.
- The revolutionary ideals shall be assured of
realization.
- 3.
- All personal considerations shall be absolutely
excluded.
Desiring that this labor may be beneficial to my country, I repeat
the assurances of my consideration.
[Inclosure 3—Translation—Extract.]
Reply of the Conventionist Minister of
Agriculture, General Manuel Palafox.
Department of
Agriculture.
In reply to the note dated at Washington the 11th instant, [etc.], I
have the honor to say that I consider sincere the mediation that you
offer in the affairs of my country for reestablishing peace and
constitutional order, a mediation
[Page 741]
which I accept, if and when it has for its
object nothing prejudicial to the national honor nor to the social
principles for which the Mexican people engaged in the war.
Upon the formation of the Villa-Zapata union, it was considered that
this union would have as intermediaries or mediators a high body
made up of the principal chiefs of both revolutionary parties; and
although it was sincerely desired that that body should comprise the
principal chiefs of the Carrancista party, this was not realized, on
account of the persistent opposition of Mr. Carranza, who endeavored
at any cost to intrude his personality at the sacrifice of
revolutionary principles in spite of the representations that were
earnestly made to him. The high body—to which was given the title of
“Sovereign Revolutionary Convention”—is the one that now guides all
the acts of the social revolution, and it may now be said that it
has unified all the revolutionary elements of both parties and is
endeavoring to unify all the sane Carrancista elements.
Therefore I am obliged to decline, in favor of that high body, my
representation, in order that that high body itself—taking into
consideration the social principles now being defended and the
national honor—may participate in the conferences to which you
allude, in order to arrive at an agreement that will have for its
object the unification of all the revolutionary elements and the
establishment of the provisional or preconstitutional
government.
Accept [etc.]
M. Palafox.
Cuernavaca,
Morelos, August 25,
1915.
[Inclosure 4—Translation—Extract.]
Reply of the Conventionist Provisional Governor of
the State of Mexico, Gustavo Baz.
Free and Sovereign State of Mexico,
Office of the Governor.
Carefully informed of the note dated at Washington the 11th instant,
directed to the military and political chiefs [etc.] I have the
honor to say to your’ excellencies that the writer, hereof, as
Provisional Governor of the Free and Sovereign State of Mexico—a
Federal Unit which, in spite of all the circumstances of war,
maintains in working order all its social institutions and in
operation its important sources of wealth—sees with positive
satisfaction and the greatest gratitude the philanthropic attitude
of those American Republics which issue a humanitarian call to the
contending parties and offers them their disinterested aid upon the
ground of friendship. And the writer hereof believes that it is
feasible to obtain the unification of the revolution, provided that
the principles animating all the belligerent factions are
harmonious; and believes that the factions are divided only by the
personal ambitions of certain leaders in control of the policy of
their respective parties.
These sentiments permit me to accept, as in fact I do accept, the
good offices of the worthy Representatives of the above-mentioned
Nations, to the sole end of acting as intermediaries in effecting
the arrangements for a meeting, at a suitable place in Mexico, of
the militant groups and for the conclusion of a strong and
inflexible agreement preliminary to the creation of a provisional
government which, without rendering nugatory the aspirations of the
Revolution, shall, rather, unify the sentiment of the same and
prepare for government under the Constitution.
For these reasons I venture in my turn formally to invite you jointly
in the precise terms of our respective notes to arrange for the
proposed conferences with the delegations of all the parties, to
which conferences I shall have the honor, personally or by duly
accredited representative, of participating, and I now offer to
respect as neutral territory the place that shall be designated for
that purpose.
Accept [etc.]
Gustavo Baz.
Toluca, August 21, 1915.
[Page 742]
[Inclosure 5—Translation—Extract.]
Reply of the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the
Conventionist Government, Ignacio Borrego.
Ministry of Foreign Relations.
Toluca, State of
Mexico.
The Conventionist Government has carefully studied the note sent by
the conduct of Mr. Charles B. Parker, in charge of American
interests in Mexico, and I have the honor to send to your
excellencies by the same honorable conduct the reply drawn up in
accord with the Citizen charged with the Executive Power, Licenciado
Francisco Lagos Cházaro, and in keeping with the bases approved by
the Sovereign Revolutionary Convention at the special session of the
20th instant.
The Conventionist Government cannot ignore the call made in the name
of American fraternity to end the present strife and establish peace
and constitutional order.
This Government would abandon its openly unionist attitude, assumed
from its beginning and maintained throughout, if on this occasion it
should refuse to seek once more a means of solving the present
difficulty and conciliating the principles, interests and
aspirations of the contending groups.
And precisely because first of all it desires the union of the
revolutionary factions, this Government considers that the good
offices of the representatives of friendly nations, nearly all of
whom have the same origin, speech, beliefs, institutions, interests
and ideals as ours, would be of benefit to our country by
facilitating a rapprochement between the contending groups and
ending a war that threatens to continue indefinitely.
Therefore the Conventionist Government accepts the friendly and
disinterested offer made to it, persuaded that neither the national
autonomy nor the principles of the Revolution will suffer
thereby.
It is with great satisfaction, therefore, that I inform your
excellencies that the Conventionist Government agrees to
participate, by its duly authorized representatives, at the peace
conferences to be celebrated on Mexican soil at a place previously
neutralized.
In the latter part of the note which I have the honor to answer it is
intimated that your excellencies are disposed to act individually
and collectively as intermediaries in arranging the date and other
details relating to the conference. The Government emanating from
the Convention fully appreciates this suggestion and accepts the
disinterested offer made to it, and therefore I have the honor, in
its name, formally to invite you jointly to proceed with all the
arrangements relative to the conferences.
I avail [etc.]
Ignacio Borrego.
Toluca, Mexico,
August 21, 1915.
