cal arrangement proposed by the de facto government, the arrangement is now complete and in force and the reciprocal privileges thereunder may accordingly be exercised by either government without further exchange of views."
The President, as Commander-in-Chief of the United States Army, thereupon ordered the punitive expedition to proceed into Mexico, and on the evening of the day on which this order was given he called the newspaper correspondents to the White House and gave to them the statement which was published the next morning to the effect that the punitive expedition had been ordered under an agreement with the de facto government of Mexico and was to be used for the single purpose of apprehending the bandit Villa and his followers. There can, of course, be no doubt that this statement was absolutely true and that the invasion was amply justified. Later, however, it became apparent to Carranza that the presence of American troops upon the soil of Mexico was prejudicing him, as the head of the government, with his supporters in whose minds he had sedulously cultivated hatred and distrust of the "gringos." With the purpose of rehabilitating himself in the regard of his supporters, he caused his Secretary of Foreign Relations to address to our State Department the impudent letter, referred to in Chapter IV, in which the claim was made that the presence of American
