The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-03-02
Examination of Body Delayed

Examlnatl0n or bOdy telayeo Washington, March No examination
 of the body of William s. Benton the
 British subject executed by General Villa
 at Juarez, will be made by the commits sion composed of American and British government representatives. pending the outcome of an exchange of notes between General Carranza, chief of the Mexican constitutionalists, and the United States government.
 General Carranzas declaration that Great Britain instead of the United States. should deal with him concerning the death of a British subject coupled with the broad intimation that all com munications on international affairs first should be addressed to him, instead of to General Villa, or any other subordinate, injected new complication into the sit- uation and the expedition to Chhua- hua. arranged to start from Fl Paso today. was postponed.
 President Wilson and Secretary Bryan conferred most of the afternoon, read ing the notes from Carranza and other dispa tches Afterwards Secretary Bryan motored to the British embassy and in- formed Sir Cecil Spring Rice. British am bassador. that the expedition to Chihua- hua. where Benton's body is buried, had been abandoned until satisfactory ar rangements would be made with General CarranZa.
 Just what instructions have been sent to American Consul Simpich at Nogales, who is in touch with General Carranza. was not dvulged. but representatives of Carranza. who understand the American viewpoint. were busy teegraphing the constitutionalist commander tonight urg- ing change of attitude. Carranza' s friends here believe he does not under
 stand exactly the position of the United States with reference to all foreigners in Mexico and are seeking to impress upon him that when dealing with the | United States, he is, in effect treating
 with the agent of Great Britain. Eng i land and other powers have practically 1 intrusted to the Washington government
 the task of looking after it's subjects in
 northern Mexico, particularly at points 1 where there are no British consular rep ! resentatives, as at Juhrez
 Notes Not Regarded as Unfriendly l That Carranza will realize this and | change his attitude is the confident ex- l pression of his friends here Wash | ington officials said they did not inter- 1 pret Carranza' s notes friendly. That l Carranza really was offended because the l United States addressed it's first commun- | ications about the Benton killing to Amer | ican consuls in touch with General Villa | was the generally accepted expla nation | here of his declination to submit informa- = | tion to Washington about Benton's death. | The principle which the American gov 1 ernment has been following In dealing with General Villa and others has been
 one of practical expediency. It's course | has been to make representations quick ! ly through American consuls to the au- 1 thorities, civil or military, who hap | pened to be in de facto control of the region where the danger lay. Instances of this were the representations made I I.D,,. 1 pico.
 In some quarters Carranza's suggestion | that he should be first addressed was | regarded a bid for formal recognition. | The American government. however it 1 was stated on the highest authority | holds that recognition could be extended
 only through formal announcement and 1 expressed intention rather than through
 any casual relationship. In dealing with | General Carranza it is felt here the | United States merely is consulting the | man whom General Villa says he ac- | knowledges as chief.
 1 In the view of many officials here Car
 ranza desired by his notes to impress 1 upon the world the cohesion of the con- | stitutianilts movement. His assertion of authority over Villa which in many | quarters has been doubted, Is one of the | phases of the situation which the devel- | opments of the next few days now were expected to clarify.
 1 On the assumption that Carranza is
 the chief of the movement, it is more | than likely now that if the American | government on behalf of Great Britain
 seeks repara ton for the Benton killing
 representations will be made directly to | him. Failure or inability of Carranza
 to comply would be regarded as hay 1 Ing an important bearing on the rela- | ton of the United States government tc
 the future of the constitutionalist move
 ment Officials here admit they are con- siderably perturbed over Mexican af- | fairs. They will wait, however. for Villa
 and Carranza to give the world the facts
 on the Benton episode before declaring | the next step.
 1 Secretary Bryan stated positively to- day that the American government had | reached no final conclusion on the cir
 cumstances surrounding Bentons execu- tion although it already had much evi- | 0enpe