File No. 812.63/185
The Secretary of State to Mr. Parker, representing American interests
Washington, September 23, 1916, 6 p.m.
441. Your 401, September 17. American mining companies represent that they have operated at great loss for several years and that they were compelled to close mines by drastic tax and wage decrees, uncertain railway service, excessive freight charges, confiscation of supplies, high cost of materials, withdrawal from Mexico of American managers and technical staffs, and lack of adequate protection. Same reasons are advanced by companies against operating for the present, also fear of repetition of Santa Ysabel massacre, prevalence of typhus and other diseases epidemic throughout central and northern parts of Mexico; that mines cannot operate until smelters are constructed or until present smelters resume work; that even then work cannot be resumed without cheapest form of transportation, now lacking; that even in normal times such decree could not be complied with and would result in confiscation. They add that there are various other factors making general resumption of work impossible, and that hostile acts against investors are having a very injurious effect, and finally, that, so far as Americans are concerned, the American Government refuses to issue passports for their return.
You are instructed to bring the foregoing to the attention of the appropriate authorities and emphatically request annulment of the decree. You may state that the Government of the United States still declines on account of existing conditions to issue passports to Americans desiring to return to Mexico, but that such passports will be issued as soon as conditions in Mexico warrant such action. You will further state that under existing conditions the decree is confiscatory in its effects and that such a drastic measure is unnecessary, as mining men will be anxious to resume work as soon as conditions approaching normal have been restored.