File No. 812.00/17415
Following just received from Secretary Acuña, which is transmitted in
Spanish immediately to save time:
The Secretary for Foreign
Affairs to Special Agent Silliman
[Translation]
Irapuato,
March 10, 1916, 11 p.m.
In reply to your courteous note of yesterday, forwarded today by Mr.
John W. Belt, I have the honor to inform you that upon my making the
said note known to the citizen First Chief of the Constitutionalist
Army in charge of the Executive Power of the Nation, he directed me
to say to you, who will have the kindness to repeat it to the
Department of State of the Government of the United States,
that—
The First Chief is pained to hear of the lamentable occurrence at
Columbus, New Mexico, on the occasion of the attack upon it
yesterday by bandits led by Francisco Villa.
Although there has been in the State of Chihuahua a sufficient force
to restore order and afford guaranties to nationals and foreigners,
since Francisco Villa began operations in the mountains of that
State, the Chief Executive, at the request of the Governor of
Chihuahua and of the Consul at El Paso, ordered 2,500 men under
command of General Luis Gutiérrez to pursue the bandits who have
just crossed into the territory of the United States, who made this
move doubtless because they were driven to it by the persistent
pursuit conducted by the said command of General Gutiérrez.
The deplorable incident above mentioned bears some resemblance to the
raids into the States of Sonora and Chihuahua by Indians from the
reservations of the Government of the United States. The Sonora raid
took place about the year 1880 when the Indian Gerónimo (recently
deceased at Ft. Mount, Alabama) with a large horde invaded a
community in the northern part of Sonora and committed a number of
murders and depredations, taking the lives and property of Mexican
families until, after a long and persistent pursuit by Mexican and
American forces, the band was annihilated and its chief captured.
The invasion of Chihuahua by the Indian Victor followed by eight
hundred Indians took place from 1884 to 1886. At that time the bands
went as far as the towns of Tejolochic and Tres Castillos, very near
the capital of Chihuahua, committing many crimes. At their first
real battle with the Mexican forces they lost their chief and
scattered.
In both these cases an agreement between the Governments of the
United States and Mexico provided that armed forces of either
country might freely cross into the territory of the other to pursue
and chastise those bandits.
Bearing in mind these precedents and the happy results to both
countries yielded by the agreement above referred to, the Government
over which the citizen First Chief presides, desiring to exterminate
as soon as possible the horde led by Francisco Villa, who was
recently outlawed, and to capture Villa and adequately punish him,
applies through you, Mr. Confidential Agent, to the Government of
the United States and asks that the Mexican forces be permitted to
cross into American territory in pursuit of the aforesaid bandits
led by Villa, upon the understanding that, reciprocally, the forces
of the United States may cross into Mexican territory, if the raid
effected at Columbus should unfortunately be repeated at any other
point on the border.
The Government of Mexico would highly appreciate a prompt and
favorable decision by the Government of the United States.
Accept [etc.]
Acuña,
In charge of the Department of Foreign
Relations.
