of the deplorable conditions existing along the border and their important bearing on the peaceful relations of our governments, but that an effort is made to connect it with other circumstances in order to support, if possible, a mistaken interpretation of the attitude of the Government of the United States toward Mexico.

You state in effect that the American Government has placed every obstacle in the way of attaining the pacification of Mexico, and that this is shown by the volume of diplomatic representations in behalf of American interests which constantly impede efforts to reorganize the political, economical and social conditions of the country; by the decided aid lent at one time to Villa by American officers and by the Department of State; by the aid extended by the American Catholic clergy to that of Mexico; by the constant activity of the American press in favor of intervention and the interests of American business men; by the shelter and supply of rebels and conspirators on American territory; by the detention of shipment of arms and munitions purchased by the Mexican Government, and by the detention of machinery intended for their manufacture.

In reply to this sweeping charge, I can truthfully affirm that the American Government has given every possible encouragement to the de facto Government in the pacification and rehabilitation of Mexico. From the moment of its recognition, it has had the undivided support of this Government.

An embargo was placed upon arms and ammunition going into Chihuahua, Sonora and Lower California, in order to prevent their falling into the hands of the armed opponents of the de facto Government. Permission has been granted from time to time, as requested, for Mexican troops and equipment to traverse American territory from one point to another in Mexico, in order that the operations of Mexican troops against Villa and his forces might be facilitated.

In view of these friendly acts, I am surprised that the de facto Government has construed diplomatic representations in regard to the unjust treatment accorded American interests, private assistance to opponents of the de facto Government by sympathizers in a foreign country, and the activity of a foreign press as interference by the United States Government in the domestic politics of Mexico. If a denial is needed that this Government has ulterior and improper motives in its diplomatic representations, or has countenanced the activities of American sympathizers and the American press opposed to the de facto Government, I am glad most emphatically to deny it. It is, however, a matter of common knowledge that the Mexican press has been more active than the press in the United States in endeavoring to inflame the two peoples against each other and to force the two countries into hostilities.

With the power of censorship of the Mexican press, so rigorously exercised by the de facto Government, the responsibility for this activity cannot, it would seem, be avoided by that Government and the issue of the appeal of General Carranza himself in the press of March 12, calling upon the Mexican people to be prepared for any emergency which might arise and intimating that war with the United States was imminent, evidences that attitude of the de facto Government toward these publications. It should not be a matter of surprise that, after such manifestations of hostile feeling, the United States was doubtful of the purpose for which the large amount of ammunition was to be used which the de facto Government appeared eager to import from this country.

Moreover, the policy of the de facto Government in refusing to co-operate and in failing to act independently in destroying the Villa bandits, and in otherwise suppressing outlawry in the vicinity of the border so as to remove the danger of war materials, while passing southward through this zone, falling into the hands of the enemies of law and order, is, in the opinion of this Government, a sufficient ground, even if there were no other, for the refusal to allow such materials to cross the boundary into the bandit-infested region. To have permitted these shipments without careful scrutiny would, in the circumstances, have been to manifest a sense of security which would have been unjustified.

Candor compels me to add that the unconcealed hostility of the subordinate military commanders of the de facto Government toward the American troops engaged in pursuing the Villa bands and the efforts of the de facto Government to compel their withdrawal from Mexican territory by threats and show of military force instead of by aiding in the capture of the outlaws constitute a menace to the safety of the American troops and to the peace of the border. As long as this menace continues and there is any evidence of an intention on the part of the de facto Government or its military commanders to use force against the American troops instead of co-operating with them, the Government of

the United States will not permit munitions of war or machinery for their manufacture to be exported from this country to Mexico.

As to the shelter and supply of rebels and conspirators on American territory, I can state that vigorous efforts have been and are being made by the agents of the United States to apprehend and bring to justice all persons found to be conspiring to violate the laws of the United States by organizing to oppose with arms the de facto Government of Mexico.

Political refugees have undoubtedly sought asylum in the United States, but this Government has vigilantly kept them under surveillance and has not hesitated to apprehend them upon proof of their criminal intentions, as the arrest of General Huerta and others fully attests.

Having corrected the erroneous statements of fact to which I have adverted, the real situation stands forth in its true light. It is admitted that American troops have crossed the international boundary in hot pursuit of the Columbus raiders and without notice to or the consent of your Government; but, through several protestations on the part of this Government by the President, by this Department and by other American authorities, that the object of the expedition was to capture, destroy or completely disperse the Villa bands of outlaws, or to turn this duty over to the Mexican authorities when assured that it would be effectively fulfilled, have been carried out in perfect good faith by the United States.

Its efforts, however, have been obstructed at every point; first, by insistence on a palpably useless agreement which you admit was either not to apply to the present expedition or was to contain impracticable restrictions on its organization and operation; then, by actual opposition, encouraged and fostered by the de facto Government, to the further advance of the expedition into Villa territory, which was followed by the sudden suspension of all negotiations for an arrangement for the pursuit of Villa and his followers and the protection of the frontier; and finally by a demand for the immediate withdrawal of the American troops. Meantime conditions of anarchy in the border States of Mexico were continually growing worse.

Incursions into American territory were plotted and perpetrated since the Glenn Springs raid was successfully executed, while no effective efforts were being made by General Carranza to improve the conditions and protect American territory from constant threat of invasion.

In view of this increasing menace, of the inactivity of the Carranza forces, of the lack of co-operation in the apprehension of the Villa bandits, and of the known encouragement and aid given to bandit leaders, it is unreasonable to expect the United States to withdraw its forces from Mexican territory or to prevent their entry again when their presence is the only check upon further bandit outrages, and the only efficient means of protecting American lives and homessafeguards which General Carranza, though internationally obligated to supply, is manifestly unable or unwilling to give.

In view of the actual state of affairs as I have outlined above, I am now in a position to consider the conclusions which you have drawn in your note under acknowledgment from the erroneous statements of the fact which you have set forth.

Your Government intimates, if it does not openly charge, that the attitude of the United States is one of insincerity, distrust and suspicion toward the de facto Government of Mexico, and that the intention of the United States in sending its troops into Mexico is to extend its sovereignty over Mexican territory and not merely for the purpose of pursuing marauders and preventing future raids across the border.

The de facto Government charges by implication, which admits of but one interpretation, that this Government has as its object territorial aggrandizement, even at the expense of a war of aggression against a neighbor weakened by years of civil strife. The Government of the United States, if it had had designs on the territory of Mexico, would have had no difficulty in finding during this period of revolution and disorder many plausible arguments for intervention in Mexican affairs. Hoping, however, that the people of Mexico would, through their own efforts, restore peace and establish an orderly government, the United States has awaited with patience the consummation of the revolution.

When the superiority of the_revolutionary faction led by General Carranza became undoubted, the United States, after conferring with six others of the American republics, recognized unconditionally the present de facto Government. It hoped and expected that that Government would speedily restore order and

provide the Mexican people and others, who had given their energy and substance to the development of the great resources of the republic, opportunity to rebuild in peace and security their shattered fortunes.

This Government has waited month after month for the consummation of its hope and expectation. In spite of increasing discouragements, in spite of repeated provocations to exercise force in the restoration of order in the northern regions of Mexico, where American interests have suffered most seriously from lawlessness, the Government of the United States has refrained from aggressive action and sought by appeals and moderate though explicit demands to impress upon the de facto Government the seriousness of the situation and to arouse it to its duty to perform its international obligations toward the citizens of the United States who had entered the territory of Mexico, or had vested interests within its boundaries.

In the face of constantly renewed evidences of the patience and restraint of this Government in circumstances which only a government imbued with an unselfish and sincere desire to respect to the full the sovereign rights and national dignity of the Mexican people would have endured, doubts and suspicions as to the motives of the Government of the United States are expressed in your communication of May 22, for which I can imagine no purpose but to impugn the good faith of this Government, for I find it hard to believe that such imputations are not universally known to be without the least shadow of justification.

In fact, can the de facto Government doubt that, if the United States had turned covetous eyes on Mexican territory it could have found many pretexts in the past for the gratification of its desire? Can that Government doubt that months ago, when the war between the revolutionary factions was in progress, a much better opportunity than the present was afforded for American intervention, if such has been the purpose of the United States as the de facto Government now insinuates? What motive could this Government have had in refraining from taking advantage of such opportunities other than unselfish friendship for the Mexican republic.

I have, of course, given consideration to your argument that the responsibility for the present situation rests largely upon this Government. In the first place, you state that even the American forces along the border, whose attention is undivided by other military operations, find themselves physically unable to protect effectively the frontier on the American side.

Obviously, if there is no means of reaching bands roving on Mexican territory and making sudden dashes at night into American territory, it is impossible to prevent such invasions, unless the frontier is protected by a cordon of troops.

No Government could be expected to maintain a force of this strength along the boundary of a nation with which it is at peace for the purpose of resisting the onslaughts of a few bands of lawless men, especially when the neighboring State makes no effort to prevent these attacks. The most effective method of preventing raids of this nature, as past experience has fully demonstrated, is to visit punishment or destruction on the raiders.

It is precisely this plan which the United States desires to follow along the border without any intention of interfering upon the sovereign rights of her neighbor, but which although obviously advantageous to the de facto Government, it refuses to allow or even countenance. It is in fact protection to American lives and property about which the United States is solicitous and not the methods or ways in which that protection shall be accomplished. If the Mexican Government is unwilling or unable to give this protection by preventing its territory from being the rendezvous and refuge of murderers and plunderers, that does not relieve this Government from its duty to take all the steps necessary to safeguard American citizens on American soil.

The United States Government cannot and will not allow bands of lawless men to establish themselves upon its borders with liberty to invade and plunder American territory with impunity, and when pursued to seek safety across the Rio Grande, relying upon the plea of their Government that the integrity of the soil of the Mexican Republic must not be violated.

The Mexican Government further protests that it has "made every effort on its part to protect the frontier" and that it is doing "all possible to avoid a recurrence of such acts." Attention is again invited to the well-known and unrestricted activities of De La Rosa, Ancieto Piscano, Pedro Vinos and others in connection with border raids, and to the fact that, as I am advised, up to June 4, De La Rosa was still collecting troops at Monterey for the openly avowed purpose of making attacks on Texas border towns, and that Pedro Vinos was recruiting at other places for the same avowed purpose.

I have already pointed out the uninterrupted progress of Villa to and from Columbus, and the fact that the American forces in pursuit of the Glenn Springs marauders penetrated 168 miles into Mexican territory without encountering a single Carranzista soldier. This does not indicate that the Mexican Government is "doing all possible” to avoid further raids, and if it is doing "all possible" this is not sufficient to prevent border raids, and there is every reason, therefore, why this Government must take such preventive measures as it deems sufficient.

It is suggested that injuries suffered on account of bandit raids are a matter of "pecuniary reparation" but, never the cause for American forces to invade Mexican soil. The precedents which have been established and maintained by the Government of the Mexican Republic for the last half century do not bear out this statement. It has grown to be almost a custom not to settle depredations of bandits by payments of money alone, but to quell such disorders and prevent such crimes by swift and sure punishment.

The de facto Government finally argues that “if the frontier were duly protected from incursions from Mexico there would be no reason for the existing difficulty"; thus the de facto Government attempts to absolve itself from the first duty of any Government, namely, the protection of life and property. This is the paramount obligation for which governments are instituted, and governments neglecting or failing to perform it are not worthy of the name.

This is the duty for which General Carranza, it must be assumed, initiated his revolution in Mexico and organized the present Government and for which the United States Government recognized his Government as the de facto Government of Mexico. Protection of American lives and property, then, in the United States is first the obligation of this Government and in Mexico is, first, the obligation of Mexico, and second, the obligation of the United States.

In securing this protection along the common boundary, the United States has a right to expect the co-operation of its neighboring republic; and yet, instead of taking steps to check or punish the raiders, the de facto Government demurs and objects to measures taken by the United States.

The United States Government does not wish to believe that the de facto Government approves these marauding attacks, yet as they continue to be made, they show that the Mexican Government is unable to repress them. This inability, as this Government has had occasion in the past to say, may excuse the failure to check the outrages complained of, but it only makes stronger the duty of the United States to prevent them, for if the Government of Mexico cannot protect the lives and property of Americans, exposed to attack from Mexicans, the Government of the United States is in duty bound, so far as it can, to do so.

In conclusion the Mexican Government invites the United States to support "assurances of friendship with real and effective acts," which "can be no other than the immediate withdrawal of the American troops." For the reasons I have herein fully set forth, this request of the de facto Government cannot now be entertained. The United States has not sought the duty which has been forced upon it of pursuing bandits who, under fundamental principles of municipal and international law, ought to be pursued and arrested and punished by Mexican authorities.

Whenever Mexico will assume and effectively exercise that responsibility the United States, as it has many times before publicly declared, will be glad to have this obligation fulfilled by the de facto Government of Mexico. If, on the contrary, the de facto Government is pleased to ignore this obligation and to believe that "in case of a refusal to retire these troops there is no further recourse than to defend its territory by an appeal to arms," the Government of the United States would surely be lacking in sincerity and friendship if it did not frankly impress upon the de facto Government that the execution of this threat will lead to the gravest consequences.

While this Government would deeply regret such a result, it cannot recede from its settled determination to maintain its national rights and to perform its full duty in preventing further invasions of the territory of the United States and in removing the peril which Americans along the international boundary have borne so long with patience and forbearance.

Accept, etc.,

ROBERT LANSING.

ULTIMATUM TO MEXICO

WASHINGTON, June 26, 1916.

The text of the ultimatum to Carranza, given out by the State Department today, follows. This telegram was sent on June 25, 1916, to James Linn Rodgers, Special Representative of the American Government in Mexico City:

Mr. Arredondo yesterday delivered to this Government the following communication:

"I am directed by my Government to inform Your Excellency, with reference to the Carrizal incident, that the chief executive, through the Mexican war department, gave orders to General Jacinto B. Trevino not to permit American forces from General Pershing's column to advance further south, nor to move either east or west from the points where they are located, and to oppose new incursions of American soldiers into Mexican territory.

"These orders were brought by General Trevino to the attention of General Pershing, who acknowledged the receipt of the communication relative thereto. "On the 22d instant, as Your Excellency knows, an American force moved eastward quite far from its base notwithstanding orders and was engaged by Mexican troops at Carrizal, State of Chihuahua. As a result of the encounter several men on both sides were killed and wounded, and seventeen American soldiers were made prisoners."

You are hereby instructed to hand to the Minister of Foreign Relations of the de facto Government the following:

"The Government of the United States can put no other construction upon the communication handed to the Secretary of State of the United States on the twenty-fourth of June, by Mr. Arredondo, under instruction of your Government, than that it is intended as a formal avowal of deliberate hostile action against the forces of the United States now in Mexico, and of the purpose to attack them without provocation whenever they move from their present position in pursuance of the objects for which they were sent there, notwithstanding the fact that those objects not only involve no unfriendly intention toward the Government and people of Mexico, but are, on the contrary, intended only to assist that Government in protecting itself and the territory and people of the United States against irresponsible and insurgent bands of rebel marauders.

"I am instructed, therefore, by my Government to demand the immediate release of prisoners taken in the encounter at Carrizal, together with any property of the United States taken with them, and to inform you that the Government of the United States expects an early statement from your Government as to the course of action it wishes the Government of the United States to understand it has determined upon; and that it also expects that this statement be made through the usual diplomatic channels, and not through subordinate military commanders."

EXECUTIVE ORDER

LANSING.

[Providing for the Payment of Interest on Deposit Money Orders Issued in the Canal Zone.]

By virtue of the authority vested in me by law, it is hereby ordered:— I. That deposit money orders issued by the Canal Zone Postal Service shall bear interest at the rate of one-half of one percentum for each period of three full calendar months, from August 21, 1916, or subsequent date of issue. Interest shall be payable when the order is paid but shall not accrue on any order for more than three years.

2. The Governor of The Panama Canal is authorized to prescribe such detailed rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out this order. WOODROW WILSON.

THE WHITE HOUSE, October 22, 1916.