File No. 812.00/20044
General Funston to the Secretary of War
3838. Following received from General Bell dated November 30:
A Carranza colonel who arrived this morning from Chihuahua said that the shell fire from Santa Rosa Hill set many houses on fire and that from 300 to 500 citizens were killed in their homes, that the Villistas in entering Chihuahua had for their war cry “Viva Villa and death to the gringos!” He believed from what he heard before he left that there was a wholesale murdering of the Chinese. He said that Villa would have taken Chihuahua on Sunday if it had not been for the report that Murguia was close at hand with reinforcements. He also said that a large number of the officers deserted their commands and ran panic stricken through the streets, leaving their underofficers and men to shift for themselves. The Mexican officers coming from Sauz say that all of the cavalry was still there and that the horses as well as the men were in very bad condition, as there was a scarcity of both food and forage, and that many of the soldiers are deserting in every direction and that the officers and those who are loyal are having a hard time to hold the men. A large bunch of men had been brought in who had attempted to desert to the west. Mexicans who arrived on this morning’s train say that a lot of people are coming to Sauz from Chihuahua on foot and that some of them had arrived before they left Sauz. A troop train arrived at Juarez at 2.30 a.m., on the Central with about 300 infantry. Another troop train arrived at 3.30 a.m., with 21 cars, 350 soldiers, 300 women, children and others passengers, about 75 of them wounded. There were also a number of the Chihuahua police force on this train. On Wednesday, the 29th, General Ozuna with about 500 men went with a train to within about ten miles of Chihuahua and was there fired on by the Villistas and immediately returned. A Chinaman who left Chihuahua on the night of the 28th says that he was living in the Chinese quarter and that when the Villistas first came into that quarter they did not kill very many of them but sacked and robbed them of everything of value. However the Villistas returned later on and out of 27 Chinaman he was the only one that was not killed; that instead of shooting the Chinamen they beat out their brains with guns and clubs. He made his way here via Sauz. He also said that on Monday morning, the 20th, all of the principal Chinese in Chihuahua went to see German consul and asked him to ask General Treviño for a special train with a guard to bring them to the border at Juarez; that they had done this as they had received a telegram from their representative in Juarez advising them to come to Juarez immediately as he had received information that Villa was going to attack Chihuahua and there would be a massacre of the Chinese. The German representative went to General Treviño and asked him for a train and escort for these Chinese and when he returned he said that General Treviño said he could furnish them a train but that there was no need for them to get nervous as he was perfectly able to defend Chihuahua. The German representative further said that in case Villa did come to Chihuahua he would give them protection as the representative of the Germans. When the battle began the Chinese tried to find the German representative but could not do so and therefore were left without his protection. Another Chinaman coming in on the same train said that he was a gardener and lived on the outskirts of the city and that there were about 35 of them there. That the Villistas came about ten o’clock at night and broke down the door and murdered his countrymen with the butts of their guns and clubs just as if they were a lot of dogs and then sacked the house and set it on fire. He stayed in hiding two days without anything to eat or drink before he could escape. Another Chinaman said he lived in a house where about 20 of them had gathered and that only 3 of them escaped.
About 40 Chinamen came in this morning on the train and they passed 14 more near Laguna who were walking along the track, but the train was so heavily loaded that the train crew refused to allow them to get on.