Envoy's Recall Expected.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 4, 1913:
Virtual or Actual Dismissal of Wilson Looked For in Capital.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Aug. 3.— Virtual or direct dismissal of Henry Lane Wilson, Ambassador to Mexico, is expected to be the next step in the Administration's policy of dealing with the Mexican situation. An official telegram recalling Mr. Wilson to Washington from New York, where he has been for several days, was sent to him in the Waldorf-Astoria to-night, and he is expected to reach Washington to-morrow.
    Before the Ambassador left Mexico City for Washington under the hurry order sent to him by Secretary Bryan it was known in official circles here that he would not be permitted to return to the Mexican capital as the envoy of the United States. In accordance with custom he had placed his resignation at the disposition of the new President when Woodrow Wilson took office last March.
    Whether Ambassador Wilson's connection with the Diplomatic Service will be severed through the mere acceptance of his resignation has not been disclosed officially, but there is strong reason to believe that he will not be dropped from the official rolls through the ordinary means.

No Specific Reason Given.
    Beyond the fact that his views do not coincide with those of President Wilson and Secretary Bryan as to how the American Government should deal with the Mexican situation no reason has been assigned here for the ardent desire of the Administration to get rid of Ambassador Wilson except, of course, that he is a Republican. . It had been reported to the President and the Secretary of State that the Ambassador was on very friendly terms with the Huerta Government, and stories have been brought to the White House and State Department tending to reflect on Mr. Wilson very severely. It never has been asserted that any of those stories were backed up by competent evidence, and the Ambassador asserted when he was in Washington last week that no charge against him was pending and that there would be no charge.
    That statement by the Ambassador has been confirmed in a measure in the State Department, where it was made known in response to inquiries that in their several talks on the Mexican situation since the arrival of the Ambassador in this country President Wilson and Secretary Bryan had not discussed the personal status of the Ambassador.
    In several indirect ways President Wilson has shown that he was displeased with the Ambassador to Mexico, but Secretary Bryan gave the envoy no reason to believe that he was in the bad graces of the Administration beyond a mere expression of regret that the Ambassador had talked so freely to reporters on his arrival in this country. Mr. Wilson was treated with great courtesy and consideration in his several interviews with Secretary Bryan, and after his fifty-minute conference with President Wilson last Monday he said the President had been most kind and courteous.
    It is a fact, however, that the President demonstrated clearly by his attitude toward Mr. Wilson that he was giving no consideration to the views of the Ambassador as to how the Mexican situation should be dealt with by the United States. In their brief talk the President confined his questions entirely to the condition of affairs in Mexico, past and present, and did not examine Mr. Wilson as to the remedies which the envoy had in mind.
    Ambassador Wilson left in the White House a written statement giving his plan for bringing about peace in the republic, but as far as known that has not been examined by the President. In fact, a semi-official hint was given last Monday night that President Wilson had such little interest in what his Ambassador had to propose that he had not taken the trouble to read the envoy's statement.

Out of Patience With Envoy.
    It is no secret here that President Wilson is entirely at variance with the idea of the Ambassador, that, as a preliminary step to one suggested mode of settling the Mexican troubles, the Huerta Government should be recognized by the United States under certain conditions specified by the Ambassador, Nor has the President shown any patience with the Ambassador's idea of having the United States pacify the Northern States of Mexico or with taking any other section that would have to be accomplished by force of arms.
    The President was provoked, also, by the impression made on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations by Ambassador Wilson's statements when he appeared before that body. It was at the President's instance that a decision of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs to have the Ambassador before it for examination was rescinded.
    From all those things, it is apparent to official Washington and observers of the Mexican situation here that Ambassador Wilson has no place in the good books of the Administration.

Knockout for Mediation.
    With President Wilson on the point of announcing a new policy toward Mexico, a knockout blow has been given to the suggestion of mediation, according to opinions here tonight, by President Huerta's defiant rejection of all proposals that contemplate interference with the progress of the sanguinary struggle in his country. Huerta's refusal to consider mediation or any of the other suggestions put forward from Washington as made known through Aureliano Urrutia, the Mexican Minister of the Interior, in Mexico City last night, is accepted here as authoritative.
    In the understanding of Congressmen and others, the Wilson Administration has been engaged for the last week in endeavoring to bring friendly pressure to bear on Huerta to induce him to step out. Nothing has come to light here to make it appear that the President or any other high ranking officer of the Administration has sent any authorized agent to see Huerta or to communicate with him, but the belief is general that men who have influence with the Mexican President and who have been made aware of the desire of the Washington Government, are seeking to convince him that unless he removes himself from the situation, the United States probably will be forced to adopt a policy of intervention.

Huerta's Stand Seems Final.
    But Huerta's announcement through his Minister of the Interior that he will brook no interference, seems to dispose of the hope that he would resign or would receive the suggestion of mediation in a friendly spirit. Coming on top of the announcement by the revolutionary leaders, Carranza, Blanco, and Pesqueira, through the columns of The Times that they would decline the mediatory offices or the United States, the Huerta statement seems to confirm the belief that President Wilson's idea of settling Mexico's troubles through mutual concessions on the part of the Federals and the Constitutionalists, has little chance of success. In spite of this and other discouraging signs, however, there is a hopeful feeling in Administration circles that a forward step toward bringing peace to Mexico will be taken soon, with some chance of achieving its purpose.
    Expectation that President Wilson will take important action in the Mexican situation in the next few days is widespread among those with whom the President has conferred over the condition of affairs in Mexico. This understanding is particularly strong among members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. A broad hint of it is conveyed by several of them who are known to have had interviews with the President recently, but they insist that they are in the dark as to what the President has in mind to propose.
    This expectation received greater credence to-day from the fact that Secretary Bryan did not leave Washington to resume his lecture engagements.

President Remains Reticent.
    Judging from the cautious expressions of members of Congress, President Wilson is not taking many of them — perhaps not any of them — into his confidence as to what he intends to do.
    President Wilson and Secretary Bryan evidently have adopted a new policy in dealing with conditions in Mexico that may be a forerunner of a more general plan. Ground exists for the belief that in several recent cases wherein American citizens have fared badly at the hands of the Huerta forces the Washington Government has taken a direct course in demanding immediate redress. There is reason to believe that, following a precedent established by Philander C. Knox when he was Secretary of State in the case of two Americans sentenced to death in Nicaragua, the Wilson Administration has directed United States Consuls in Mexico to warn commanding officers of Mexican Federal troops that they would be held responsible personally if harm befell American citizens arrested by them.
    The revolutionists, in their expressions through The Times, have shown that their chief desire was that the United States would give them the privilege possessed by the Huertistas of importing munitions of war from the United States. This idea is favored by a large number of members of Congress, but it was rejected by President Wilson when it first was proposed to him. The President showed a sympathy, however, with the proposal to stop the shipment of arms, to the Huertistas, thus shutting off both sides from getting arms from this country. It is thought likely one or the other of the two propositions will come up in the discussion of the Mexican question in Congress this week, and that the President will agree to whatever action Congress takes.