File No. 812.00/18666
The Acting Secretary of State to Special Representative Rodgers
Washington, July 13, 1916.
Sir: The Department is in receipt of the following telegram, dated June 21, ten p.m., from the American Vice Consul at Mazatlan, Mexico. [See next instruction of July 15, 1916.]
Under date of July 3, 1916, the Acting Secretary of the Navy wrote the Department on the subject communicating a message from Admiral Winslow, reading as follows:—
Report received this morning from Commander Kavanaugh covering Mazatlan incident. The evidence is conclusive that uniformed officers of the Mexican army and Mexican soldiers, without the slightest provocation, opened fire on U. S. S. Annapolis boat. I approve action of boat in returning fire. Commander Kavanaugh’s action in withholding fire from the ship’s battery because of the certainty of killing noncombatants, and possibly Americans and foreigners, was good judgment. Prisoners would undoubtedly have been murdered had he bombarded. The outrage was wholly unprovoked, and I believe it to be a far more serious affront than the Tampico affair. The self control and temperate action of Commander Kavanaugh prevented a situation which might have been the cause of immediate war.
You are instructed to bring the foregoing to the attention of the de facto Government of Mexico, and to request that a full and searching investigation be made of this brutal attack upon American naval forces. You will also request that the Mexican officers and soldiers responsible for this serious affront be adequately dealt with by the proper authorities, pointing out that leniency in this case may lead to other unprovoked attacks upon American naval forces that may hereafter visit Mazatlan.
You are directed to make known to the de facto Government that the Government of the United States must insist on adequate action being taken in this matter and that it desires to be informed of the steps the Mexican authorities propose to take in connection with this regrettable affair.
I am [etc.]