Mexican Foothold Sought For Japan.

New York Times 100 years ago today, July 20, 1913:
Mikado's Subjects Ask Leave from Huerta to Colonize the State of Morelos.
REBELS BESIEGE AMERICANS
Refugee Fights His Way Through — Widow Charges Madero Was Slain in Bed.
    MEXICO CITY, July 19.— A committee of Japanese has appealed to the Government to permit the colonization of the State of Morelos by Japanese, and negotiations with that end in view are in progress.
    In reply to the representations of the American Embassy regarding aid for Durango, where there are many Americans, the Government has given its customary assurance that it will do the best possible, but there is little chance of Federal troops entering Durango in a long time. It is not practicable to send them south from Chihuahua. Gov. Carranza is keeping the Federals busy to the east, while help from the south will be possible only after the rebels shall have been cleared from the neighborhood of Torreon.
    The Archbishop of Durango, who was held prisoner for a ransom of 500,000 pesos, has been freed on the payment of 3,000. That amount was contributed by the foreign Consuls.
    The insurgents, who hold the National Railway, reached a point sixty miles north of San Luis Potosi to-day and burned the station at Charcos, as well as several bridges south of the Federals. This means that at least three detachments of Federals are isolated at points between San Luis Potosi and Saltillo.
    Gen. Felix Diaz left here to-day as special Ambassador to Japan to express the thanks of Mexico to the Japanese for their participation in the centennial celebration in 1910. He will go first to Salina Cruz, and thence by Pacific Mail steamer to San Francisco.

    LAREDO, Tex., July 10.— Rumors that political exile was involved in Gen. Felix Diaz's special embassy to Japan to thank that Government for its participation in the Mexican centennial, were denied in a message from Diaz received here today. The message said:
    Accept mission to Japan solely and exclusively to give thanks for the embassy of that Government to our recent centennial. Any other motive is unfounded and entirely false.
    The message was interpreted to mean that Gen. Diaz would be a Presidential candidate.

    EL PASO, Texas, July 19.— According to the American Consul in Juarez, fourteen American men in Madera, Chihuahua, and six families of women and children are in daily danger of an attack by bandits and marauders, and it is said by officials of the Northwestern Railway Company that the Mexican Federal Government has announced its inability to give them protection.
    Particular uneasiness is felt for the safety of the Americans because of their recent activity in running down bandits who robbed ranches and burned property in that neighborhood. The bandits swore vengeance against all Americans in the district, saying they would loot their homes and slay them.
    The Americans have rifles and ammunition and will make a stand if driven to it. In the meantime, they are making efforts to get out of the country.
    Lloyd C. Griscom, ex-Ambassador to Italy and now counsel to the Mexico Northwestern Railway, announced last night that he just had received a telegram from the railroad's agent in El Paso, Texas, that one of the employes of the Madera Lumber Company in Madera had fought his way out of that town through the rebel lines and had arrived in El Paso. The refugee's mission was to obtain help for the fourteen Americans besieged in Madera. He reported that an American named Griffin had been killed by the rebels.
    The Americans were guarding the extensive property of the lumber company, which previous to the rebel activities employed between 4,000 and 5,000 Mexicans, Mr. Griscom said. The refugee reported that 150 of those Mexicans had been killed in recent attacks by the rebels.
    Among the Americans in Madera, the advices to Mr. Griscom stated, was W. W. Grubbs, nephew of H. I. Miller, President of the Mexico Northwestern. Part of the town had been destroyed and the company's commissariat sacked, it was added. There were no Federal troops in Madera. It was reported that 600 bridges had been burned along the railroad. The defense of the Madera plant was in the hands of F. C. Herr, Superintendent of Works.

SAYS MADERO DIED IN BED.
Widow Repeats Charge That He Was Murdered in His Sleep.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, July 19.— Señora Madero, widow of the slain President of Mexico, Francisco I. Madero, Jr., asserted to-day that her husband had been murdered brutally. She backed up circumstantial allegations of the manner in which President Madero was killed with photographs of apartments in the Mexican National Palace in which, according to her story, he met his death. For this Government to recognize the Huerta administration would be atrocious, she contended.
    "Who accepts Huerta accept his acts," added the widow.
    "At the moment my husband met his death, he was unclothed," Señora Madero related. "These photographs show his clothing, his hat, his shoes and all his other apparel. Here is a photograph of the rooms of the Superintendent of the National Palace in Mexico City, where he was held captive when he was arrested, and on a wall-hook is seen his hat, on the floor are his shoes, and his other clothing is in various places.
    "If he were shot when trying to escape, in the yard, or near the penitentiary, when he was being taken to prison, as Huerta and Diaz asserted, how comes it that he did not dress himself before starting?
    "He was slain in one of the rooms of the Superintendent of the Palace, when he was asleep in bed. Cardenas, then Captain, now Colonel, has exhibited the knife with which he stabbed my husband and the revolver with which he struck him on the head when he was asleep.
    "Gustavo Madero, my brother-in-law, had been slain in the arsenal four days before. When my husband was arrested and conducted to the rooms of the Superintendent we feared the worst. I tried to see him; they would not let me. I tried to send him food, and they would not let me until the last day. For the first couple of days of his imprisonment he had no bed to sleep on, and they would not let me send him a bed until the last day. On that day, evidently, the plot had been completed, and they wanted him to have a bed and to be asleep that night in it with Pino Suarez.
     "The tragedy occurred about half past 10 or 11 o'clock on the night of Feb. 22, Saturday. Ten minutes later it was whispered all over Mexico City, my friends told me later, although the official report said he did not die, was not shot until 2 or 3 o'clock the next morning.
    "When I was informed of my husband's death I tried to go to his body. They refused to let me see it. I was put off from time to time. They said they wanted to perform an autopsy. What for? What good was an autopsy? I then asked permission to have a surgeon, a friend of mine, present at the autopsy. I was refused. I asked permission to have a physician, a friend of mine, present at the embalming. I was refused.
    "When I finally got Señor Madero's body it was not clothed. It was wrapped in bandages, tightly, thousands of yards of them. Every portion of him except his forehead, eyes, nose and mouth, was swathed in bandages. His feet and hands, his whole body, was covered, every inch of it, with bandages made as nearly permanent as such things could be. Why was that? It was to keep people from seeing just what his wounds consisted of. And I, his widow, never have seen those wounds, nor any friend of mine, nor representative of mine, legal or medical
    "Three years ago Huerta had never been heard of in Mexico. Three years ago he was a saloon habitué, penniless, and begged, actually begged, for drinks in the cafés. He entered the army, won some little promotion, and was in the campaign in the north, and my husband promoted him again and again, rapidly. He, Diaz, Mondragon and Blanquet know who gave the order for the assassination of Señor Madero and Señor Suarez."