File No. 812.00/16619, 16476.
Vice Consul Bevan to the Secretary of State.
Tampico, October 12, 1915.
Sir: I have the honor to report that the peace negotiations between General Carranza and General Manuel Pelaez were a complete failure, and as a result, General Pelaez remains in entire control of the oil fields of the Tuxpam district. His forces have been demanding general loans and collecting taxes from petroleum companies. He controls completely the camps of the Compañia Mexicana de Petroleo “El Aguila” S. A., the Huasteca Petroleum Company, and the Penn-Mex Fuel Company, the three largest oil producing companies in Mexico, and has between seven and eight hundred men, fairly well armed, under his command. The Carrancista forces control the city of Tuxpam but none of the surrounding oil fields. If General Carranza would send a force of about a thousand men into the Tuxpam district they would be able to get control immediately, as the Villista forces under General Pelaez are poorly disciplined, not good fighters, and are scattered over the entire district in bands of from 50 to 100 men.
I have [etc.]