Imperial Valley press., 1913-12-19

suave sarcasm and innuendo he had
all the best of the straightforward in
structions which Mr. Lind laid before
him as defining the intentions of the
United States.
Gamboa's Reply
Senor Gamboa flatly denied Presi-
dent Wilson's statement that the
Huerta government was losing instead
of gaining control of territory. To
the assurance of disinterested Ameri-
can friendship he returned a sugges-
ton that the Washington government
prevent the giving of aid to the revo-
lutionists from the American side of
the line. President Wilson, he de-
clared, was under serious delusion
if he thought Mexico was not dis
charging it's international obligations.
AS to the proposals for an armistice,
Senior Gamboa said that no armistice
could be arranged with 'bandits," his
description of the constitutionalists.
He found himself unable to agree to
the request for President Huerta' S
elimination of himself as candidate.
"This might be interpreted as mat
Ter of personal dislike" he wrote.
In reply to President Wilson's in
quiry whether Mexico could suggest
any step whereby the United States
might assist the restoration of peace,
Senior Gamboa suggested an immedi-
ate exchange of ambassadors. This
would have been equivalent to recog-
milton and probably would have ended
the pressing financial difficulties of
the Mexican government. President
Wilson declined to do anything of the
.,ind.
Mr. Lind left Mexico city for Vera
Cruz after receiving what he deemed
satisfactory assurances that President
Huerta would not be a candidate when
the elections were held.
President Wilson settled down to
play waiting game, confident that
President Huerta ultimately must fall
of his own isolation. Outlining his
future course, the president on Au-
| gust 27 said to congress-:
"It is now our duty to show what
true neutrality will do to enable the
people of Mexico to set their affairs
in order again and wait for further
opportunity to offer our friendly
counsels. The position of outsiders is
always particularly trying and full
If hazard where there is civil strife
and a whole country upset.
Americans Urged to Leave
"We should earnestly urge all
Americans to leave Mexico at once
and should assist them to get away
in every possible way-not because
we would mean to slacken in the least
our efforts to safeguard their lives
and their interests, but because it is
imperative that they should take no
unnecessary risks when it is physi-
cally impossible for them to leave the
country. We should let every one who
assumes to exercise authority in any
part of Mexico know, in the most un-
equivocal way, that we shall vigi-
lantly watch the fortunes of those
Americans who cannot get away and
shall hold those responsible for their
sufferings and losses to a definite
reckoning. This can and will be made
plain beyond the possibility of mis-
understanding.
"For the rest, deem it my duty
to exercise the authority conferred
upon me by the law of March IA,
1912, to see to it that neither side to
the struggle now going on in Mexico
receives any assistance from this side
of the border. l shall follow the best
practice of nations in the matter of
neutrality by forbidding the exporta-
ton of arms or munitions of war of
any kind from the United States to
any part of the republic of Mexico-a
policy suggested by several interest
ing precedents and certainly dictated
by many manifest considerations Of
practical expediency. We cannot, in
the circumstances, be the partisans Of
either party in the contest that now