GENTLEMEN OF THE CONGRESS:

It is my duty to call your attention to a situation which has arisen in
our dealings with General Victoriano Huerta at Mexico City which calls
for action, and to ask your advice and coöperation in acting upon it. On
the 9th of April a paymaster of the U.S.S. _Dolphin_ landed at the
Iturbide Bridge landing at Tampico with a whaleboat and boat's crew to
take off certain supplies needed by his ship, and while engaged in
loading the boat was arrested by an officer and squad of men of the army
of General Huerta. Neither the paymaster nor anyone of the boat's crew
was armed. Two of the men were in the boat when the arrest took place
and were obliged to leave it and submit to be taken into custody,
notwithstanding the fact that the boat carried, both at her bow and at
her stern, the flag of the United States. The officer who made the
arrest was proceeding up one of the streets of the town with his
prisoners when met by an officer of higher authority, who ordered him to
return to the landing and await orders; and within an hour and a half
from the time of the arrest orders were received from the commander of
the Huertista forces at Tampico for the release of the paymaster and his
men. The release was followed by apologies from the commander and later
by an expression of regret by General Huerta himself. General Huerta
urged that martial law obtained at the time at Tampico; that orders had
been issued that no one should be allowed to land at the Iturbide
Bridge; and that our sailors had no right to land there. Our naval
commanders at the port had not been notified of any such prohibition;
and, even if they had been, the only justifiable course open to the
local authorities would have been to request the paymaster and his crew
to withdraw and to lodge a protest with the commanding officer of the
fleet. Admiral Mayo regarded the arrest as so serious an affront that he