Uncertain As To Claims.

New York Times 100 years ago today, August 10, 1913:
Government Inclined Not to Hold Rebels — H. L. Wilson's Protest.
Special to The New York Times.
    WASHINGTON, Aug. 9.— It came to light to-day that the Government was in a peculiar situation with regard to claims for damages on account of injuries suffered by American citizens and damage to their property interests in Mexico through depredations of Federals, revolutionists, and bandits. The Government had determined on a policy with regard to claims against Mexico that would leave American citizens without compensation for personal and material injuries received unless the Huerta Administration was successful in its struggle with the Constitutionalists.
    It now appears that this policy was checked through the refusal of Henry Lane Wilson, the American Ambassador to Mexico, to carry out instructions of the State Department to accede to that policy. Mr. Wilson, it was said to-day, made it plain that the policy was repugnant to his ideas, and declined to sanction it unless his instructions were reiterated after further consideration by the authorities in Washington.
    The declaration of policy by this Government in regard to losses suffered by American citizens, aggregating many millions of dollars, was the outgrowth, it was said in official circles, of a correspondence between Ambassador Wilson and the British Minister in Mexico City. The British representative had indicated his assent to the view that the revolutionists could not be held responsible for damages to foreign properties inflicted in the course of the Mexican disorders if they succeeded in overthrowing the Government in power in the City of Mexico. Ambassador Wilson advised his British colleague to abandon that position and notified the State Department of the stand he had taken.
    The Ambassador's report on the subject was said to have reached the State Department in the closing days of the Taft Administration, and no action with regard to it was taken by Secretary Knox. Recently the subject received consideration from the legal officers of the State Department, and they decided that the course advocated by the British Minister, which had since been confirmed by his Government, was correct. Instructions were sent to Mr. Wilson to so advise the Mexican Government and his diplomatic colleagues in the City of Mexico.
    The Ambassador, it was said to-day, had declined to follow these instructions unless they were confirmed by further directions from the State Department after his objections were considered. Before any formal communication from the department on the subject was sent to the American Embassy in Mexico City Mr. Wilson was recalled to Washington. It is the understanding that the policy which the Ambassador declined to carry out remains in abeyance.