The Washington herald., 1914-05-28
|HUERTA OBTAINS
war MUNITIONS.
Steamers Ypiranga and Ba-
yaria Land Cargoes at
Puerto Mexico.
MET NO OPPOSITION.
State Department Admits Germans
Were Within Their Rshts-200
Machine Guns Ashore.
MET NO OPPOSITION

Huerta has finally succeeded In OBJ
tanning for his forces, several million
rounds Of ammunition and q large con-
signment of machine guns and rihes.
The Hamburg-Ame-ican steamship
Ypiranga and Bararia landed these
cargocs of munitions at Puerto Mexico
The Ypiranga's cargo, estimated at about
Is, ,oo0, 900 rounds of ammunition and more
| than 200 machine guns. was landed yes
terday.
1t IL the identical cargo that the United
States held up through the seizure OF
Vera Cruz. In fact, the decision OF the
administration to move suddenly against
Vera Cruz was reached solely because Of
the fact that the Ypiranga was about to
land this big consignment OF war sup
plies. Thus fve weeks after Vera, Cruz
was taken at a considerable sacrifice Of
American life, the very arms and am.
munition which were Immediately re-
sponsible for the American invasion have
been landed without any opposition from
the United States.
Message Came Late.
onicial confirmation Of the reported
landing of the Ypirangas cargo at
Puerto Mexico was received late yester-
day by the State Department.
The cargo of the Bavaria, consisting OF
about a million rounds Of ammunition
and a large consignment OF carbines, was
landed three days ago, but no definite
news of it reached Washington until
yesterday. when Secretary Of War Gar
rison was informed in an official dis
patch. The United States government
had known for some time that the Bava-
ria had a cargo of this character.
Oficials of both State and Navy De-
partments. when informed of these large
additions to Huerta's war supplies. de-
clared the United States would have
taken no steps to prevent their being
landed even II 1t had been suspected be-
forehand that this was to be done.
Officials of the State Department ac-
knowledged that the Hamburg-American
officials were clearly within their rights
In landing the cargoes. and that the only
course this government could have taken
to have prevented the landing of the
shipments would have been the seizure
Of Puerto Mexico This would have con-
stituted a violation Of the armistice with
Huerta and would have threatened the
success Of the mediation proceedings.
1t would also have been practically an
act Of war. for the United States already
announced that its purpose in seizing
Vera Cruz was merely one of reprisal for
an Insult to the flag and that for the
present there was no intention Of going
further.
Emharrassed BY Stand.
The United States was embarrassed.
too, by the stand that it has taken In
regard to the importation of arms at
Tampico. This government had de-
clared that 1t intended to keep Tampico
an open port, and that no step would be
taken to prevent the exportation of arms
from American ports to that city. For
this government to have taken drastic
action against the shipments to Huerta
would have meant as a matter Of con-
sistency that an embargo would have
to be laid on shipments from this coun-
try to the constitutionalist port
The Information from Vera Cruz that
the Brazilian consul in Mexico City.
who is the representative Of the Ham,
burg American Line there, had partici-
pated in making the arrangements for
the landing Of the munitions, gives an
other interesting angle to the incident.
There would not be any likelihood of
the United States protesting to Brazil.
but the incident Is particularly unfor-
tunate because Of the activity Of Brazil
in the mediation proceedings.