Situation Grave, Hunt Says.

New York Times 100 years ago today, September 10, 1912:
Governor of Arizona Tells The Times Mexican Rebels Endanger Americans.
    In response to a request for his views on the Mexican situation, Gov. George W. P. Hunt of Arizona has sent this message to The New York Times:
    PHOENIX, Ariz., Sept. 9.— The gravity of conditions along the southern border of Arizona by reason of the warfare in Mexico is made immediately apparent by the facts that most of the recent engagements have been fought within a comparatively short distance of United States territory, and that American residents of Southern Arizona, in close proximity to the border, are living in a state of apprehension lest at any time their lives and property shall be jeopardized by Mexican revolutionary bands.
    Still more deplorable than these conditions are the circumstances under which hundreds of American Mormon refugees, who had builded homes and fortunes in Mexican territory, were compelled to flee to the United States, and in so doing to leave behind the fruitage of their toll.
    These unfortunate people are now being sheltered by friends in several cities of Arizona.
    The numerous reports of still more terrible outrages by the irresponsible Mexican revolutionaries must be accorded credence in some instances at least, and lend still more force to the argument that remedial measures are necessary. Having arrived at such a conclusion, we may ask ourselves, "what measures are justifiable?" Intervention, I cannot subscribe to such a belief at this time. The new Federal Government of Mexico has recently been inaugurated. Its establishment purported to bring relief and prosperity to a nation convulsed internally by internecine strife, but that nation's domain is great. Sparsely settled and poorly provided with lines of transportation and communication. The revolutionaries at whose doors so many outrages can be laid profited by these facts and have succeeded in creating turmoil in Northern Mexico. Such a condition is not unprecedented, even in the history of nations more powerful than our Southern neighbor.
    The United States was occupied for several years in subduing a race whose territory it had acquired by purchase, the Philippine Islanders. Is it surprising, then, that the Federal Government of Mexico should need some time in which to quell revolution? Would it be just to that nation for the United States, a powerful Republic, to transcend treaty relations and wrest the reins of Government from the hands of her weaker sister, even if this were done under the guise of extending protection to the lives and property of Americans?
    Such a course might cause complications more far-reaching and disastrous than most of us anticipate. The Mexican Federal Government has put forth earnest endeavors to protect American lives and property. In this it should be assisted by every possible means of co-operation consistent with international relations and with a view to aiding the Government of Mexico in visiting justice upon the revolutionary bands that have placed themselves beyond the pale of forbearance by the outraging of Americans. The State of Arizona has just expressed its assent to the conveying of Federal troops through its territory to points in Sonora. where their presence is needed. I believe such a measure salutory and justifiable, I will go further and say that if conditions permitted United States soldiers to aid Mexico in quelling rebellion without depriving her of Governmental control, we would be in full accord with such a policy for the safeguarding of American lives and property in the zone of conflict.
                        GEORGE W. P. HUNT.
                                  Governor of Arizona.