817.00 H 35/20

The Mexican Ambassador ( Téllez ) to the Secretary of State

[Translation76]

Mr. Secretary: On the morning of the 10th of this month the consul general of Mexico at New York informed me by telephone [Page 251] that he had just received on the morning of Thursday the 15th [8th?] of this month a subpoena to appear before the Committee recently named by the Senate to investigate certain documents calumnious of high officials of the Government of Mexico, as well as of the United States, which have been appearing for some days in the Hearst publications with a manifestly tendentious aim. In view of the gravity and urgency of the case, I telephoned Your Excellency and informed you, as at your request I also did the Under Secretary of State, the Honorable Robert E. Olds, of that which had been stated to me, requesting the intervention of the Department of State in the form believed most adequate to alleviate an unjustified situation which had been created by the action of the Committee of the Senate, not only for the consul general but also for my Government.

As I have orally informed Your Excellency and other high officials of the Department of State on repeated occasions, my Government in cases like the one under consideration holds the opinion that in conformity with the fundamental principles and practices of international law, the Government of the United States should grant to the consul general of Mexico at New York complete immunity from the subpoena which has been served on him. Notwithstanding this, my Government—which at the appropriate time and through all its agencies duly authorized, denounced in a public, categorical and general manner the falsity of the documents on which are based the statements published by the Hearst papers, and which has seen with sincere sorrow that the said papers have even gone to the extreme of injuring the honor and good name of some of the respected members of the Senate of the United States—my Government, I repeat, feels moved by an intense desire to lend its cooperation for the success of the work which the Committee of the Senate has initiated tending to establish the falsity of the said documents and would gladly cooperate if it found a possibility of doing so while protecting in an unequivocal manner, on the one hand, the rights which in conformity with the principles and practices of international law appertain to its agents duly accredited to foreign governments, and, on the other hand, the national dignity.

By virtue of the foregoing, and duly empowered by the authority which I obey, I now state to Your Excellency, that if the Department of State should find an expeditious way by which the Committee of the Senate might withdraw the subpoena on our consul at New York, my Government would consider as protected the reservation to which I allude, and thus, without any precedent being established, would see a possibility of authorizing Señor Arturo M. Elias, in his personal character (if the matter is arranged through proper channels which I believe in this case would be the Department of State and this [Page 252] Embassy) to accept an invitation to appear before the said Committee on the day and hour of the subpoena which he received, replying always in his personal character to questions which may be put to him, whenever these questions do not affect political matters concerning the Government of Mexico, since only this Embassy in my charge is qualified to treat of such matters.

I beg Your Excellency kindly to communicate to me at such time as may seem opportune if the above meets with your approval, for in that case I shall at once draw up the appropriate instructions to Señor Elias in order that he may be in Washington at the proper time and hour.

Accept [etc.]

Manuel C. Téllez
  1. File translation revised.