The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1914-02-26
CEAv|LLA TRIES TO
JUSTIFY EXECUTION
CHARGE BENTON DREW REvOL.
YER THREATENING REBEL
LEADER.
u. S. LAWS OF WAR CITED
Claim Is Made Constitutionaiists Act
ed Plainly Within Army Rules
England to Await Amer
lean Investigation.

Washington, Feb. 23.-White House
officials say hat official reports from
General Villa and his friends declared
William S. Benton, the British ranch
man, vas executed because he entered
the camp of Villa armed and threat
ened the life of the constitutionalist
commander.
To Await investigation.
In view of this latest report, there
was a disposition at the White House
to await a full investigation of the
facts before expressing any opinion.
1t was also stated that Great Britain
was holding in obeyance any repre-
sentation, pending the completion of
a report on the affair by the American
government.
Late official dispatches to the state
department containing Villas version
of the affair were brought to the White
House, but a complete account of the
killing as personally explained to Con-
sui Edwards is on its way by mail.
Story of Villa.
Official dispatches from American cor
sular representatives say further that
villa alleges Benton came to him
armed, and that during the course of a
long argument and quarrel Benton
raised a gun to shoot, but was dis
armed, and a trial by a military court
followed. Villa takes the position that
q foreigner who threatened the life OF
a military officer is subject to no i'm
munity or the rights ordinarily extend
ed to non-combatants.
Announcement that Benton met
death in Juarez after a courtmartial
ordered by Villa was made by Secre-
tary Bryan, who said he had no furth-
err details. His information came in
o dispatch from Consul Edwards at
Juarez, who said he had read the
courtmartial proceedings which were
forwarded by mail to Washington.
Secretary Bryan communicated Con
sui Edwards latest message to Sir
Cecil Spring-Rice, the British ambas-
sador, and instructed Consul Edwards
to demand adequate protection and a
fair hearing for Gustav Bauch, an
American citizen, for whose safety in
Juarez grave apprehension has been
felt. Friends of Bauch in Eel Paso
have telegraphed to Representative
Smith of Texas that he had been shot
as a spy. No report had been received
at the state department today on the
reported disappearance of two other
Englishmen.
Villa Justifies Action.
villa today telegraphed Robert V.
~Pesquiera, constitutionalist agent here,
as follows:
THE attention of the commanding
general of the division of the north
having been drawn to the published
reports in respect to the recent execu-
tion OF William S. Benton, he desires
known that the action of the author
tiles in that case was entirely justi-
fled by the laws and usages of war.
Under article 81 of general order
100, for the government of the United
States, in the field, 1t is provided that
armed prowlers' who come within the
line of the army of occupation with
hostile intent, are not entitled to the
privileges of prisoners of war.
article SO provides that persons
within occupied territory who employ
violence toward the established au-
thorities are subject to the penalty OF
death whether they arise singly or in
number.
Attempted Act of Violence.
There is absolutely no doubt but
what Benton, a Huerta sympathizer,
and a murderer of Mexican citizens,
deliberately attempted an act of vio-
lence against the person and life of the
commanding general, and for that rea-
son, in accordance with the laws and
usage of war, he was tried by a mill
tary tribunal, constituted for that pur-
pose, and executed pursuant to its sen
tence, a proceeding sustained by
American and European precedents."
England to Wait.
London.--The British government,
for the present at least, will leave the
Investigation of the execution of Will
lam S. Benton. a British ranch owner
In Mexico. wholly in the hands of the
United States. The foreign office is
sued this statement:
AT the request of his majesty's am
bassador at Washington, the United
States government, which has pro-
missed protection to British subjects in
such parts OF Mexico where no British
consulates exist, has instructed Unit
ed States consular representatives
thoroughly to investigate the circum-
stances Of William s. Benton's death"