File No. 837.00/1156
Consul Griffith to the Secretary of State
Santiago [undated; received February 28, 1917.]
As result of a general meeting held by the owners and managers of 25 sugarmills the following letter with 25 signatures has been addressed to me with a request that same be forwarded:
The undersigned managers and owners of 25 sugar plantations and cane colonies in this province, do solemnly declare that since the 12th day of this month, all their estates are under the absolute control of the military forces which pronounced themselves opposed against General Menocal’s Government and which operate under the orders of Commandant Rigoberto Fernandez under whose custody and care and not under General Menocal’s forces the said estates have been working and executing in a normal manner all their grinding operations. That, on the 24th of this month all this sort of work was stopped by the orders of the above said Commandant Fernandez and having gone out to him as the sole authority in control of this zone with the request that he cancel his order above referred to. The said Commandant stated that he issued that order in order to prove that the statement made by General Menocal before the United States Government to the effect that the sugar crop is being made in the usual way under control and custody of his forces is not true and the Commandant further stated that as soon as the American Government so suggests it, he will allow and take care of the sugar crop of our estates. In view therefore, that the Government of the United States can by a simple utterance avoid the enormous injury which the stoppage of the crop causes, we pray you to forward this declaration of our wants to the Honorable President of the United States and earnestly beg that he apply whatever remedy he may deem convenient.