The Mena weekly star., 1917-03-08
JAPAN AND MEXICO
 ARE EXONERATED
Not Certain That Zimmerman's In- structi0ns Reached Carranza-Japs Repudiate Plot and Insist on Sin ..
 cere Friendship for the U. $.

Washington, March i.-Secretary Lansing took great care today to ex- onerate both Japan and Mexico, and said that this government had no knowledge that the German proposal had been conveyed thru Mexico to Japan.
 In view of the fact that the plan was not to be presented until it IS certain that there will be an out break with the United States it is not certain, Secretary Lansing said, that the matter had been prc ,ented to General Carranza at all
 II is known definitely, officials said, that Zimmerman's instructions reached Count von BernstorH here m Washington, that he forwarded them to Mexico City and tha6 they reached the German minister there.
 Al this point the trail of olllc'aI cer-
 laInty is lost to view.
 Japs Repudiate the Plot
 The Japanese embassy made !he following comment:
 With regard to the alleged Ger
 man attempt to induce Japan and Mexico to make war upon the United States, made public in the press this morning, the Japanese embassy. while lacking information as to whether such invitation ever reached Tokio, desires to state most
 emphatically that any invitation of this sort would under no circum- stances be entertained by the Jap Ianese government, which is in en- tire accord and close relations with lother powers, on account of formal agreements and our common cause. and, moreover, our good friendship with the United States, which is ev- cry day growing in sincerity and cordiality.n
 Germany's Plots and Dreams.
 Washington, March i.-Reyelation of how Germany, expecting war with the United States as a result of her ruthless submarine policy, plot
 ted to unite Japan and Mexico with her in an attack on this country, has stirred the capital to it's depths. Members of congress Thursday went
 to the capitol and read documentary evidence of the intrigue to add the
 United States to the list of nations Germany hopes to see conquered in
 her dream of world dominion.
 Aside from the plan to alienate Japan from the entente and turn that country against the United
 States. the German plot to embroil Mexico in war against the United States, which was to have general financial support from Germany, Icommands chief attention here be-
 cause it is regarded as proof of long mOldering suspicious of German ac- tNities to stir up trouble elsewhere
 on the Western Hemisphere, where Ithe United States, by the Monroe doctrine, is morally obligated with maintaining. order
 Reports of German submarine
 bases in the Gulf of Mexico, hints Of possible German influences behind 1.-the uprising in Cuba; repeated as- Isertions that German influences were playing upon all revolutionary factions in Mexico with the sole purpose of embarrassing the United States; reports of resentment being stirred up against the United States i'll Colombia, which already has a grievance because Of tine partiittii5n of
 Panama; the recent purchase by the United States of the Danish West Indies, for the openly announced reason that the United States could not afford to have them fall into the
 hands of hostile power, all these things. in the opinion of officials
 here, take on decidedly definite form with the disclosures made in Germany's instructions to her min lister in Mexico.
 The investigation of the Ameri- can military intelligence officers and the secret service along the border
 have disclosed many German activi- ties there, which naturally, in the light of these revelations, can be as- signed to their proper place in the sequence of events.
 At Columbus, N. M, it is charged that German influences were re- sponsible for the Villa raid, with the object of forcing intervention by the United States, which was expected
 to draw the attention of the Ameri- can military forces and munitions and consequently cut down the mu- nitions exports to the allies.