Wilson Arrives 'Standing Pat'.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 26, 1913:
Says Huerta Has Whipped the Mexican Rebels and Basic Conditions Are Good.
MEDIATION PLAN "ALL ROT"
Expects to Return to His Post, Attacks Upon Him Being "All Politics."
AGAINST PEACE COMMISSION
But Won't Discuss His Own Plans — Charges That Text of Mrs. Madero's Letters to Him Has Been Changed.    Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador to Mexico, who was summoned to Washington last week by President Wilson, there to discuss with the President and Secretary of State Bryan the situation in the trouble-racked republic south of the Rio Grande, arrived in New York on the Ward liner Mexico yesterday morning. He left for Washington at 12:30 o'clock this morning, having spent the early part of the evening at a theatre. Before leaving the city he made it plain that he "stood pat," as he himself put it, on everything that he had done as the American Ambassador in Mexico City, and that if necessary he would do it all over again.
    Furthermore, Mr. Wilson said that many of the vicious attacks that had been directed at him were nothing more nor less than "politics." He added that when the time came it would be proved that those attacks were unmerited.
    The Ambassador was one of the most popular passengers on the Mexico and among the most democratic. He met the reporters with a smile and told them he would answer every question that he could without violating the proprieties of his office. The impression he created was that of a man who was entirely satisfied with the course of action that he had pursued and who was confident that the future would justify every move that he had made. He talked frankly yet diplomatically, and the only subjects he would not discuss had to do with the matters which he expects to take up with President Wilson and Secretary Bryan to-day.
    When he was asked if it were true, as has been reported, that his sympathies are with the Huerta Government, Mr. Wilson smiled and replied that there was no man who knew what his views were with regard to the right or the wrong of the Huerta cause.

Stands by Message to Consuls.
    A telegram which it was said the Ambassador had sent to every American Consular officer in Mexico immediately followed the overthrow of the Madero Government and the accession of the Huerta regime was much under discussion here a few days ago. The Ambassador said that this telegram was absolutely correct as printed. This is the message:

Mexico City, D. F.,
Feb. 21, 1913, 4 P.M.
American Consul General, Monterey:
    You are requested to inform all Consular officers under your jurisdiction by telegraph as follows:
    "Provisional Government installed yesterday, with Gen. Huerta as President. General public approval in this city, which is perfectly quiet. Reassuring reports come from other places. President Madero is a prisoner awaiting the decision of Congress in his case. Senate and House of Representatives in full accord with the new administration.
    "You should make this intelligence public, and in the interests of Mexico urge general submission and adhesion to the new Government, which will be reorganized by all foreign Governments to-day."
    "That is an absolutely correct copy of the message," the Ambassador said, "and I stand by every word of it. I approved then, and certainly do now, of every word in that message. I stand by it in its entirety and will repeat it at any time if necessary. The policy outlined is as old as this Government itself, and to use a rather worn-out expression. I 'stand pat,' so far as that message is concerned."
    In the talk about this message the Ambassador was asked if his sympathies were, as has been hinted, with the Huerta faction in Mexico.
    "No man knows," he answered deliberately, "whom I favor, and no man will know until I have reported to the President in Washington, if then."
    It was brought to the attention of Ambassador Wilson that certain members of the slain President Madero's family had been quoted in the newspapers as holding Mr. Wilson morally responsible for the overthrow of the Madero Government, as well as the subsequent assassination of the President. This question made Mr. Wilson's eyes flash. It was plain that he took the matter deeply to heart and that he resented bitterly the insinuation that he had been a party to the Huerta-Diaz coup.
    "That is all politics, nothing more," he replied, "and it is a matter that was long ago exploded to the satisfaction of the State Department."

Text of Letters Changed, He Says.
    To bear out this statement Mr Wilson went on to say that Mrs. Madero, after her husband's death, had caused to be published letters she had written the Ambassador, but their text as they appeared in print was not the same as the original. The files at the American Embassy in Mexico City, he declared, show this.
    Ambassador Wilson intimated that he would not advise the sending of any commission to Mexico to offer its services as a means of bringing the rival factions into accord.
    Mr. Wilson also opposed a plan under which a tripartite commission would be organized, made up of representatives of the United States and two South American republics, to bring about peace between the warring factions.
    While declining to enter into an extended discussion of any plans or to offer any remedy of his own, Mr. Wilson characterized the mediation plan as "all rot."
    The proposal for a tripartite commission, Mr. Wilson said, was not feasible.
    "That is a plan of John Barrett, Director of the Bureau of American Republics," he said.

No Discussion of Intervention.
    When asked to give his views on intervention for the purpose of restoring tranquillity in Mexico, he declined to discuss the question in any way. He did, however, say that many of the reports sent to this country from Mexico had exaggerated the conditions in the republic.
    Mr. Wilson said that he expected to return to Mexico City as the American Ambassador following his conference with the President.
    "I have received no intimation," he said, "that I am not to be retained. I expect to be retained, and see no reason why I should not be. As for what's going on down in Mexico, I may venture to say that many of those reports probably were inspired by persons who desired us to intervene."
    Many of the things which he had said, the Ambassador continued, either had been misquoted or had been highly colored in transmission to this country.

"Everything Painted Red."
    "That's the way the Mexican situation has been treated here all along," he said. "Everything down there has been painted red by the papers here. Things are not nearly as bad as they have been represented. Fundamentally the condition of Mexico is good. At bottom business, what I might call the physical condition of the country, or the material condition, is good.
    "The disturbances of the present are surface disturbances, and, though they affect the country adversely, they can soon be settled, the Government can be made stable, and then Mexico will enjoy the prosperity and immunity from disturbance of which she is capable. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the country. Everything there is not going to the dogs, as some persons here seem to think."
    The Ambassador flatly declined to discuss anything having to do with the present policy of the Mexican Government. He also refused to talk of the sending to Japan of Felix Diaz as a representative of the Mexican Government.
    In a further conversation later in the day at the Waldorf-Astoria, the Ambassador said:
    "Naturally I cannot touch upon matters upon which I am to make a report. All I can tell you is that I was called up to make a verbal report on the situation in Mexico. My information is for the President."
    "Is it true that the Federal forces are losing and that the rebels are gaining ground, as reports from the border indicate?" he was asked.
    "That, I may tell you, is not true. The Federal Government is not losing. On the contrary, it is gaining ground as far as operations in the field are concerned."
    "It is reported that you have urged this Government to recognize the Huerta regime." was suggested.
    "If you refer to the telegram I sent to Washington after the installation of Huerta, on which I presume the rumor is based, that telegram said nothing of the kind. It simply suggested that the existing government in Mexico should have all the support from the American Government that could be given it. That did not mean recognition.

Rebels Whipped "All to Pieces."
    "But to go back to the reports of revolutionary successes. There is no truth in the tales of Carranza's repeated victories. The insurrectionists have been whipped all to pieces."
    Mr. Wilson's attention was drawn to a report in an afternoon newspaper, the headline of which quoted him as saying he had "saved" Mexico City.
    "I make no such claim." he said. "I have simply done the best I could to take care of American interests down there."
    "It is reported that Americans in Mexico have despaired of getting their own Government to do anything in the present crisis, and that they have got up a petition to the German Ambassador asking that his Government extend protection to their interests." was suggested.
    "That I cannot discuss."
    "Is it true, as letters to the papers have indicated, that the American residents in Mexico believe that this Government has no disposition to extend them what protection it can?" he was asked.
    "That is something else I cannot discuss."
    A man who was a passenger on the same steamship that brought the Ambassador, and who has had every opportunity for being well informed on the situation in that country, said that Mr. Wilson's prompt measures were responsible for preventing the anti-American demonstration which the students of Mexico City had planned not long before Mr. Wilson was ordered home. On the day before the demonstration was to have taken place the Ambassador sent word to the Mexican Foreign Office that if such a demonstration took place and any American property were injured or any American hurt, or even insulted, he would hold the Foreign Office strictly accountable, and use all the resources at the command of the embassy to obtain satisfaction.
    The same informant said it was known to certain Americans in Mexico City that in the Federal Army were twenty-five well-trained Japanese army officers, while among the insurrectos were fully a dozen others.
    "When Ambassador Wilson was asked about his part in preventing the anti-American demonstration from becoming serious, he smiled, but would only say: "At that time the entire resources of the embassy amounted to one servant."
    "And what about Japanese army officers in the Mexican army?"
    "That is something I would surely not discuss if I had any information about such a thing."
    Certain published statements regarding the number of soldiers who would be employed in case of intervention were brought to Ambassador Wilson's attention. He threw up his hands.
    "I cannot really talk about such matters," he said. "The course of an envoy in Mexico just now is not a path of roses, but remember that I am supposed to tell all I know to the President, and that it would be undiplomatic for me to discuss such things as you suggest. So please excuse me."