'Preposterous,' Says Colonel.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 12, 1913:
His View of the Charge That He Planned to Break Up Mexico.
Special Cable to The New York Times.

    MEXICO CITY, March 11.— Deputy Escudero asserted to-day the truth of charges against Col. Theodore Roosevelt made in the Chamber of Deputies yesterday by Deputy Querido Moheno, to the effect that the Colonel had given a promise for the partition of Mexico. Señor Escudero not only corroborated all that Señor Moheno had said, but added that he himself would make a sensational announcement shortly. The statements by the two members of the Chamber caused many expressions of indignation among foreigners in this city to-day and led to public manifestations of anti-American feeling.
    Deputy Moheno, who is the leader of the Government party in the Chamber, charged that Col. Roosevelt promised his supporters that he would divide the Mexican Republic into several small republics, thus leaving the entire country in its divided form, at the mercy of the United States. Señor Moheno added that the secession movement in the State of Sonora, where the Acting Governor and the Legislature had issued a public defiance of Gen. Victoriano Huerta's Provisional National Government, was a preliminary step toward attainment of the partition of the republic to which, he asserted, Col. Roosevelt had pledged himself.
    The Government leader made the specific charge that the State revolt in Sonora was being financed by a syndicate of "Yankee bankers."
    It was learned unofficially to-night that the Cabinet had taken action toward showing regret for the remarks made by Deputy Moheno.
    When Col. Roosevelt read the dispatch setting forth the charge made by Deputy Querido Moheno that he had promised a division of the Mexican Republic into several small republics, he had no comment to make. At his quarters in The Outlook office it was said that the Colonel considered the material of the dispatch too obviously preposterous to deserve any comment.