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Rio, Tex., whom he stated he had informed of the passage of the troops of his command.

15. The Mexican Government can not suppose that the American Government has, for the second time, committed an error in ordering the passage of its troops into Mexico without the consent of this government. It is difficult to understand how an officer of the American Army could enter Mexican territory without the due authorization of his superior officers, or that he should think for a moment that permission for the passage of his troops could be obtained from a consular officer.

The explanation given by the American Government for the sending of troops from Columbus has never been satisfactory to the Mexican Government, but the new invasion of our territory is not now an isolated fact, and leads the Mexican Government to believe that it has to treat with something more than a simple error.

16. This last act of the American forces creates new complications with the Mexican Government, renders more distant the possibility of a satisfactory solution, and creates a more complicated situation between the two countries.

The Mexican Government can not but consider this last act an invasion of our territory by American forces contrary to the expressed wish of the Mexican Government, and it is its duty to request, and it does request, of the American Government, that it order the immediate withdrawal of these new forces, and that it abstain from sending any further expedition of a similar nature.

17. The Mexican Government understands the obligation incumbent upon it to guard the frontier, but this obligation is not exclusively Mexican, and it hopes that the American Government, on which falls a similar obligation, will appreciate the material difficulties to be met with in so doing, inasmuch as it appears that the American forces themselves, notwithstanding their numbers and the further fact that their attention is not divided by other military operations, find themselves physically unable to protect effectively the frontier on the American side.

The Mexican Government has made every effort on its part to protect the frontier without, on the other hand, abandoning the work of pacifying the rest of the country, and the American Government should understand that if from time to time these lamentable incursions into American territory are perpetrated by bandit groups, this fact is rather a matter of pecuniary reparation and a reason to provide for a combined

defense, but never the cause for the American forces to invade Mexican soil.

The raid of the bandit groups into American territory is a lamentable affair to be true, but one for which the Mexican Government, which is doing all possible to avoid a recurrence of such acts, can not be held responsible. The passage of American regular troops into Mexican territory against the expressed wish to the government does, indeed, constitute an act for which the American Government is responsible. 18. The Mexican Government believes, therefore, that the time has come to insist that the American Government withdraw the new expedition from Boquillas and that it abstain in the future from sending further troops across the border. At all events, the Mexican Government, having expressed clearly its nonconformity with the crossing of additional troops into Mexico, is forced to consider this as an act of invasion of its territory and, in consequence, will be obliged to defend itself against any body of American troops on its soil.

19. In regard to the troops which are now in the State of Chihuahua and which crossed as a result of the Columbus affair, the Mexican Government is forced to insist upon their withdrawal.

The Mexican Government is aware that in case of a refusal to retire these troops, there is no further recourse than to defend its territory by appeal to arms, yet at the same time it understands its duty to avoid, as far as possible, an armed conflict between both countries, and relying on Article 21 of the treaty of the 2d of February, of 1848, it considers it its duty to resort to every pacific method to solve the international conflict pending between the two countries.

20. The Mexican Government considers it necessary to take advantage of this opportunity to request of the American Government a more categorical definition of its true intentions toward Mexico. In this respect it hopes that, in expressing itself with entire frankness, its words be not so interpreted as intending to wound the susceptibilities of the American Government, but it finds itself in the necessity of laying aside diplomatic euphemisms and expressing itself with all possible clearness. If in stating the grievances which follow the Mexican Government. uses the utmost frankness, it is because it considers it its duty to bring the point of view of the Mexican people as clearly as possible to the attention of the Government and the people of the United States.

21. The American Government for some time past has been making assurance of friendship to the Latin American people, and has taken

advantage of every opportunity to convince them that it wishes to respect their sovereignty absolutely.

Especially with respect to Mexico the American Government has declared on various occasions that it was not its intention to intervene in any manner in its interior affairs and that it desires to leave it to our country to work out alone its difficult and varied problems of political and social transformation.

Only recently, on the occasion of sending the expedition from Columbus, the American Government, through the President, declared that it would not intervene in the domestic affairs of Mexico, nor invade the country; that it did not desire an inch of its territory, and that under no circumstances would any attempt be made on its sovereignty.

The Government at Washington and its representatives at the frontier have further expressly stated that it is not the wish of the American people to enter into a war or an armed conflict with the Mexican people.

In summing up the matter, and judging by the official statements which have for some time past been made by the Government at Washington, one would think that there was a real desire on the part of the government and the people not to enter into conflict with Mexico.

22. The Mexican Government has, nevertheless, to confess that the acts of the American military authorities are in direct contradiction to the statements above referred to, and finds itself forced, therefore, to appeal to the President, the Department of State, the Senate and the American people, for a definition, once for all, of the true political intentions of the United States as regards Mexico.

23. It is equally imperative that the Government of the United States define, in a precise manner, its intentions as to Mexico, in order that the other Latin American nations might judge of their sincerity, and that they might appreciate the true value of the assurances of friendship and fraternity made to them for many years past.

24. The American Government stated, through the President himself, that the punitive expedition from Columbus would be withdrawn from Mexican territory as soon as the Villa band had been destroyed or dispersed. More than two months have passed since the expedition entered Mexican territory. Gens. Scott and Funston declared in Ciudad Juarez that the bands of Villa are completely dispersed, and yet American troops are not as yet withdrawn from Mexico.

The Government of the United States is convinced and is cognizant of the fact that there is no further work of a military nature to be per

formed by the expedition from Columbus, and nevertheless it has not yet complied with the promise made by President Wilson that these troops would be withdrawn as soon as the motive for their entry into Mexico had been removed.

The motives for preserving interior political order which might militate against the withdrawal of the troops from Mexican territory, unfounded as they are, do not justify this attitude, but, on the contrary, accentuate the discrepancy between the assurances of respect for Mexico's sovereignty and the actual fact that for purely political reasons in the United States this state of affairs, so unjust towards the Mexican Republic, is allowed to continue.

25. The American Government stated that its intention in sending troops into Mexico was only to defend its frontier against possible incursions. This statement is, notwithstanding, in contradiction to the attitude assumed by the government itself in discussing the agreement in regard to a reciprocal crossing of the boundary, for while the Mexican Government insisted that this agreement limit the zone of operations of the troops of each country, the duration of the expeditions, the number of soldiers and the class to which they should belong, the American Government constantly eluded these limitations. This attitude of the American Government, which was the one which expected to cross the boundaries at such times as might be necessary, in pursuit of the bandits, is clearly indicating its intention of preparing to penetrate further into Mexican territory than the purposes of defense would seem to warrant.

26. The punitive expedition from Columbus, as it has been called, did not have, according to statements of President Wilson, any further object than to capture and punish the band guilty of the raid, and was organized under the supposition that the Mexican Government had consented thereto. Nevertheless it has shown an attitude of manifest distrust toward the Mexican Government and a spirit of such absolute independence that it can not but justly be considered as an invasion without Mexico's consent, without its knowledge and without the coöperation of its authorities.

It was well known that the Columbus expedition crossed the frontier without the knowledge of the Mexican Government. The American military authorities carried out this expedition without waiting to obtain the consent of the Government of Mexico, and even after they were officially advised that this government had not given its consent thereto,

The Secretary of State to Special Representative Rodgers.

[Telegram.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, April 14, 1916.

You will orally communicate to Gen. Carranza or Señor Aguilar in the following sense:

The department has received through Señor Arredondo the esteemed note of the de facto government of the 12th instant and has the matters of which it treats under careful consideration.

The intention of this government is the same as it was at the outset when United States troops entered Mexico-that is, to endeavor to take the bandit chief Villa. It desires to repeat again to the de facto government that it has no intention to violate in any way the sovereignty of Mexico and purposes to withdraw immediately as soon as the object of the expedition is accomplished. It would seem that the best way to hasten the withdrawal of the American troops would be for the de facto government to throw enough of their military forces into the region where Villa must be in hiding to insure his speedy capture. This government believes that it is correct in the view that the capture of Villa would result in more benefit to the de facto government than to the government of the United States. That his capture can be more speedily accomplished by coöperation between the forces of the two governments is manifest, which can be most practically accomplished through frequent conferences between the military commanders of the two governments in the field.

For the American troops to withdraw at once from Mexico would, in the view of this government, result in encouraging the Villista faction and also the followers of Diaz who are operating near the border. We assume that the de facto government would deplore such a result, and we hope, therefore, that it will approach the question of the withdrawal of the American troops in the most liberal spirit and with full knowledge that this government's actions are inspired only by a desire to accomplish the mutual object sought without in any way affecting the friendly relations now existing between the two governments.

LANSING.

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