Mexicans' Plea To Wilson.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 22, 1913:
Havana Refugees Formally Protest Against Huerta's Recognition.
Special Cable to The New York Times.
    HAVANA, July 21.—Henry Lane Wilson, United States Ambassador to Mexico, arrived here late this evening, missing connections for Florida. He will probably go to Key West to-morrow, and arrive in Washington Thursday afternoon.
    The members of the Mexican colony here presented to him a signed statement voicing their protest against the recognition of President Huerta's Government by the United States. It reads as follows:
    "The resident Mexican public declares to Ambassador Wilson and before the correspondents of the American press the following:
    "First— Ambassador Wilson, according to public opinion, was not ignorant of the coup d'état which Gen. Huerta carried out; but we believe that he was mistaken and in every way guided and animated by a desire to re-establish peace in our republic.
    "Second— The Ambassador must now be convinced of his error, because he knows that four-fifths of Mexican territory is dominated by the arms of the Constitutionalists.
    "Third— The Ambassador knows that the reasons that caused Washington to refuse to recognize Gen. Huerta continue now, reinforced by the victories of the Constitutionalists in almost all the States of the republic.
    "Fourth— Ambassador Wilson also knows that the measures taken in response to the action at Washington demanding guarantees of American lives and interests in Durango and Torreon show impotency and incapacity such as to endanger even Gen. Huerta himself.
    "Fifth— Ambassador Wilson knows that Gen. Huerta only desires recognition of his Government from Washington in order to promote his private business, namely, perfecting a European loan which will be ruinous to Mexico.
    "Sixth— Ambassador Wilson knows that the group improperly known as the Catholic Group desires intervention as at another epoch it wanted it in order to take advantage of the ruin of the country.
    "Seventh— Ambassador Wilson knows, lastly, that the manifestations against the United States in the north have been prepared in Mexico by Gen. Huerta and the Catholic Group and the newspaper El Pais, and by the hiring of students of the university and military school.
    "We hope that Ambassador Wilson will use his influence so that in no manner and under no pretext will Gen. Huerta be recognized by Washington as the legal President of our country, because such recognition would be against public opinion, civilization, and humanity."
    Ambassador Wilson said that his trip was due solely to the desire of President Wilson to inform himself personally regarding the true political situation in Mexico. He said that the story of the plot to dynamite the American Legation was "a pure invention."