812.24/612
The Mexican Ambassador (Téllez) to the Secretary of State
Mr. Secretary: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Your Excellency’s three notes, one dated the 29th and two the 30th of June last,69 relative to applications for permits to export to Mexico 25 tons of powder intended for the Secretaría de Guerra y Marina; 211 carbines, caliber 30–40, and 36,000 cartridges for the customs inspectors of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; and 50 Thompson pistols for the National Railways of Mexico. In the above-mentioned notes Your Excellency was pleased to inform me that the said permits had not been granted.
In addition to the arms and material referred to in the said notes, the Embassy requested by note, through Your Excellency’s worthy medium, a permit to export six Douglas airplanes and accessories originally destined for the Jefe de las Armas in Sonora, and orally on several occasions, of the Chief of the Mexican Division, for action in the matter of seven cases of pistols consigned to the Departamento de Establecimientos Fabriles y Aprovisionamientos Militares which arrived at New York from Antwerp, Belgium, destined for Mexico, and were held in the American port as they were being transshipped to a steamer of the Ward Line.
My Government was genuinely surprised to learn that for some time past permits for the export of arms intended for the Secretaría de Guerra y Marina and other public offices have been denied; so that [Page 241] there appears to have been established a practice in that sense which seems to my Government to be groundless if the relations of friendship which exist between the Government which I represent and that of Your Excellency are taken into consideration. I may state, however, that my Government has no special desire that the practice, if it has been finally established, be discontinued; but I do wish to let Your Excellency know in the clearest possible way that the extent of the provisions of the order placing an embargo on arms in the United States for Mexican official shipments without any previous notice, has been the cause of certain confusions and difficulties which on various occasions have been fully made known to officers of your Department and concerning which we felt we might hope for a remedy, relying as we did on the strength of the argument presented in support of the case.
The material for the export of which the Embassy has requested permits, hereinabove referred to, has already been paid for to the exporting houses; so that the denial of the permits not only stands in the way of my Government receiving the said material, which is a difficulty that can be easily remedied since they may be acquired by my Government in other countries, but it immobilizes a capital which up to date has not been able to yield a return, seeing that its restitution would meet with obstacles in the way of agreements and contracts by which the purchases were made. The situation is such that it might be said that neither the Government of Mexico can now employ the moneys invested in the purchase of the said arms without a drawn out procedure nor the producing houses dispose of them, seeing that they have been paid for; and that should my Government recover the sums that have been so spent, the financial injury would almost entirely fall upon the manufacturing houses; thus the application of the provisions of the embargo in this case goes far beyond the original purpose of the embargo, that is to say, it not only prevents the shipment of arms to Mexico, but also is causing disproportionate damages not only to my Government but also to the manufacturing houses. Again, in a special case, that of the detention of the cases of pistols bought by my Government in Belgium, the action undoubtedly exceeded the terms of the order establishing the embargo on arms, since the arms here under consideration are shipped in transit. Your Excellency will not fail to see that as this act is one that is not justified by the laws bearing on the subject, it is very difficult not to interpret it as the result of a desire to pile up obstacles in the way of the acquisition of arms by my Government, which, on the other hand is inconsistent with the cordial relations that unite our countries.
The matter of arms and ammunition for the customhouse station of Nuevo Laredo has been explained in detail to the Chief of the [Page 242] Mexican Division, and I deem it expedient here to repeat it. In accordance with our laws the customs inspectors must supply their own arms and ammunition when entering upon their duties. The inspectors delivered the money necessary for the purchase of the arms and ammunition to the Collector of Customs, the orders as a whole being placed in the United States some months ago.
The damage done in this case by the refusal of the respective permit bears directly on the employees themselves and indirectly, as Your Excellency will not fail to see, on the good of the service of the customs inspection, which because it is exercised on the frontier separating our country from the United States, may also be attended with consequences that would be unpleasant for this country. The Thompson machine guns are intended for the Mexican railways for the protection of the trains that run in places where there is reason to doubt that safety conditions are adequate.
However, the purpose for which the arms are to be put, whose export has been requested, is not the principal argument advanced in support of the granting of the permits, but the situation which in fact has been created by Your Excellency’s Government extending the provisions of the embargo to official shipments without previous notice, which on account of the unexpected form it has assumed would fully justify the solution of the pending cases already referred to, and whose adverse consideration does not appear to be warranted by the friendly relations existing between our countries.
In closing, I take the liberty of requesting Your Excellency kindly to inform me so that I may report to my Government whether it is now the definite and settled policy of the Government of the United States to extend the embargo provisions to official shipments of arms and other war material.
I avail myself [etc.]