File No. 812.00/17501
First Chief Carranza to Mr. Arredondo
[Read to the Secretary of State, March 12, 1916, 4 p.m.]
Your messages dated yesterday. I confirm my message to you transmitting note sent to the American Government and I am awaiting the result of it. There is no reason why, on account of the lamentable incident at Columbus, we should be carried to a declaration of war between the two countries. But if, unfortunately and because of the pressure of our enemies, who have been seeking intervention at all cost, war should be declared, the Constitutionalist Government over which I preside, supported by the Mexican people, shall make use of all means possible to repel such an unjust and outrageous war. If the Government of the United States does not take into consideration the mutual permission for American and Mexican forces to cross into the territory of one another in pursuit of bandits and insists in sending an operating army into Mexican soil, my Government shall consider this act as an invasion of national territory. It is necessary that the Department of State should be caused to understand that it would be unjust to attribute to the Government and people of Mexico the responsibility for the acts committed by a band of brigands which this Government has placed beyond the law, and that there would be no justification for any invasion of Mexican territory by an armed force of the United States, not even under the pretext of pursuing and capturing Villa to turn him over to the Mexican authorities. It is inconceivable that the Government of the United States should resort to such means to capture Villa, as the only result would be to facilitate his impunity to leave the country and to bring about a war between two countries, with the numberless loss of life and property, without such loss serving to avenge the crimes which the American Government is endeavoring to punish. Such war would be the most unjust which modern history would record and it would also be an evident proof of the lack of sincerity of the American Government, in whose capital the Pan American Conference has just been held and before which President Wilson and the Secretary of State expressed sentiments of fraternity among all nations of the American continent. Such war, furthermore, would only serve for the American Government to satisfy the deliberate purpose of Francisco Villa and the reactionaries who have induced him to commit the crimes he did at Columbus, as his only aim was to provoke armed intervention by the United States in Mexico. Francisco Villa and the other traitors who are seeking the above results will avoid the struggle; and the only ones who would go to it would be honest Mexicans who have in no way provoked it. I will [not?] go into further considerations on the matter, as the right and justice of our side is so clear that no other than the reasons hereinbefore given are necessary, which you will set forth in bringing this delicate question to the attention of the Secretary of State.