File No. 812.113/8386
The Acting Secretary of State to Consul Dawson
Washington, July 21, 1917, 4 p.m.
For your information. Following statement given to press by Department:
In response to a request from the Mexican Government, the Department of State has informed the Mexican Government that it will release for shipment [Page 1086] into Mexico 2,700,000 rounds of ammunition belonging to the Mexican Government. This ammunition was ordered and paid for by the Mexican Government prior to the embargo on the shipment of arms and munitions into Mexico, and has been held in storage on the border for more than a year and a half. The Mexican Government represented to the Department of State that it was in urgent need of the ammunition, and that it was absolutely necessary for safeguarding important lines of communication and to afford protection in the outlying districts to American and other foreign interests engaged in the production of war material essential to the United States at this time.
Ambassador Fletcher will return immediately to Mexico and arrange with the Mexican Government details of delivery which will insure its reaching the hands of the representatives of the Mexican Government.
The State Department reached a decision in the matter after full consultation with the War Department and Ambassador Fletcher.