New-York tribune., 1920-03-08
Declaration in Interview
With Ambassador Fetch
er Is Revealed at Fall
Senate Committee Probe
Defied Our Protests
Revelation Believed to
Throw New Light on
Resignation of Lansing
By Wilbur Forrest
Special Dispatch to Tho Tribune


P. Fletcher to the State Department.
that he was prepared to confront"
either war or intervention on the part
Of the United States if necessary to
settle certain difficulties between the
two countries was the information
given to the American public for the
first time to-day during a session Of
the Fall Senate committee here inves-
tigating Mexico.
In questioning Bracey Curtis. presi-
dent of the Nogales, Arr, First Nation
al Bank and Nogales Chamber Of Com
merce, a witness regarding the agrari-
an law in the State of sonora, Senator
Fall incorporated in the committee rec
ord an excerpt from letter written
by Ambassador Fletcher to Secretary
Lansing describing Carranza's attitude
toward protests made by the United
States regarding Mexico's arbitrary
land laws. This attitude, Mr.. Fletcher
wrote, in effect was that American per-
sistence would mean war; He said:
Ambassador Fletcher, describing his
personal interview with Carranza, said
that If the difficulty could not be set
tied except by war Or intervention he
was sorry, but was prepared to con-
front this alternatives, Apparently he
did not like the reference in my for
mer communication to the possibility
that the United States government
would have to protect the property of
its citizens"
New Light on designations
The Fletcher-Carranza interview oc-
CURED in Mexico City on August l8,
1918, when American troops in France
were fighting desperately in the second
battle of the Marne. Senator Fall did
not read more Of the communication,
which was long.
However, the single excerpt made
public for the first time was believed
here to-day to throw new light on the
more recent designations of both Lam
sing and Fletcher, whose explanations
at the time of their designations hint
ed they were out of sympathy with the
Administration handling Of Mexico
That Senator Fall is in possession Of
confidential State Department docu-
ments dealing with the Mexican situa-
tion has been known by those in close
touch with the committee Hitherto,
however, he has rcfrained from incor-
porating the more important phases of
this information into the committee of
ficial record.
Senator Fall further informed the
witness who was defending the "sin-
cere" attitude Of the Mexican govern
ment toward the United States that the
agrar}an law Of Sonora authorized by
the Mexican constitution of 1917 was
passed over the. repeated protests of
the American State Department, which
contended the law was confiscatory.
The law provides that all agricultural
land in the state of Sonora must be
mately 100 to 600 acres, these tracts
being the maximum which one person
might own. One American company
alone, the majority Of whose capital
stock is said to be owned in Philadel-
phia, controls more than one-half mil
lion acres in the rich Yaqui Valley Of
Sonora, where it has developed an ir-
rigation project. Other American land
holdings in Sonora are said to total
several millions.
West Coast Conditions Improve
In an effort to expedite its border
hearings and return to Washington, the
Senate committee devoted all day Sun
day to taking evidence. Curtis, the
only witness, disclosed that conditions
generally in the Mexican west coast
states of Sonora and Sinaloa had i'm
proved much during the last two years
and that moro industry and less
banditry had been the; order. He testi-
fed that about fourteen hundred cars
of tomatoes already had been shipped
into the United States from these
states this year, and that during 1919
between four and Ave million dollars
worth Of chick peas. q staple food
product, passed the border at Nogales
bound for export to foreign countries.
Curtis told the committee that the
effect Of keeping foreign investments
out of the state. He said Governor
de la Huerta had assured him per-
sonally that this law had not yet be-
come effective, and possibly would not
be enforced.
"Did the Governor mention to you
any protests made by the United
States against this law" Senator Fall
asked
fyctis replied in the negative.
'a{sn March 40, 1912 Senator Fall
.~atinued, "the State Department re-
.sssted former protest it had made
against the proposed statute. and de-
spite this protest the State of Sonora
passed the agrarian law. Since that
time our government has again pro-
tested and Governor de la Huerta has
replied officially In manner entirely
contrary to his conversation with you
He made long defense of the law and
said the American protest was not well
founded"
Won't Accept Agrarian Bonds
Answering Senator Falls interrora-
tions, the witness said that as banker
he would not be willing to accept
"agrarian bonds" offered BY the Mex.
lean state IN compensation for lands
taken away from tho owners.
THAT is what the American govern.
ment contends" Senator Fall said
that the agrarian bond issue Of So.
nora offered to the owners Of these lands
amounts to practically confiscation."
The Senator pointed out that Cover.
nor de la Huerta had just been re.
called from Sonora by Carranza ano
succeeded by General Dieguez, who has
it within his power to enforce the
conhscatory land law at any time
Here the witness sought to excuse The
motives of the Mexican government
and called from Senator Fall the hith.
erto secret declaration made by Car.
rama to Ambassador Fletcher that con-
tinued American interference with
Mexico meant war
ut looks to me as most extraordinary
and undiplomatic for man to make q