ghbours, could succeed in
establishing a constitutional government. In early August, 1913,
President Wilson sent Mr. John Lind, ex-Governor of Minnesota, to Mexico
as his personal representative. His mission was to invite Huerta to
remove himself from Mexican politics, and to permit the Mexican people
to hold a presidential election at which Huerta would himself agree not
to be a candidate. Mr. Lind presented these proposals on August 15th,
and President Huerta rejected every one of them with a somewhat
disconcerting promptitude.

That Page was prepared to accept the consequences of this failure
appears in the following letter. The lack of confidence which it
discloses in Secretary Bryan was a feeling that became stronger as the
Mexican drama unfolded.

_To Edward M. House_

London, August 25, 1913.

MY DEAR HOUSE:

. . . If you find a chance, get the substance of this memorandum into
the hands of two men: the President and the Secretary of
Agriculture. Get 'em in Houston's at once--into the President's
whenever the time is ripe. I send the substance to Washington and I
send many other such things. But I never feel sure that they reach
the President. The most confidential letter I have written was lost
in Washington, and there is pretty good testimony that it reached
the Secretary's desk. He does not acknowledge the important things,
but writes me confidentially to inquire if the office of the man
who attends to the mail pouches (the diplomatic and naval
despatches in London[35]) is not an office into which he might put
a Democrat.--But I keep at it. It would he a pleasure to know that
the President knows what I am trying to do. . . .

Yours heartily,
WALTER H. PAGE.

Following is the memorandum:

In October the provisional recognition of Huerta by England will
end. Then this Government will be free. Then is the time for the
United States to propose to England joint intervention merely to
reduce this turbulent scandal of a country to order--on an
agreement, of course, to preserve the territorial integrity of
Mexico. It's a mere police duty that all great nations have to
do--as they did in the case of the Boxer riots in China. Of course
Germany and France, etc., ought to be invited--on the same pledge:
the preservation of territorial integrity. If Germany should come
in,