Correspondence With Philander C. Knox
Document Type
Letter
Files
Download Full Text (788 KB)
Date
9-9-1911
Keywords
Kosai Uchida, Japan, Henry L. Stimson, War Department, Panama, Leonard Wood, Enoch Herbert Crowder, Alvey A. Adee, Mr. Clark, Mexico, William Howard Taft, China
Description
The document is a copy of a typed letter from Huntington Wilson to the Secretary of State respecting several matters at the State Department while Knox was away, including strategies in Panama and a loan to China.
Sender
Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson
Recipient
Philander C. Knox
Corresponds to:
Folder 1-13, Document 5
City
Washington, D. C.
Transcription
[File]
September 9, 1911.
My dear Mr. Secretary:
Herewith I enclose for your information a copy of a letter I sent the President last evening.
Viscount Uchida, the Japanese Ambassador, is very anxious to say good-bye to you in person. He wants to go wherever you are to do it. I expect to hear tomorrow as to when the President will see him at Beverly and I hope you will be willing to let him go on from there to see you. When I have heard from the President I will telegraph when Uchida goes to Beverly and ask you to be good enough to let me know your pleasure as to his seeing you.
Ten days ago the Secretary of War talked to me an hour about Panama, calling in General Wood and General Crowder also, and he asked that the Department prepare instructions that would safeguard the military and strategic interests of the United States. I drafted an instruction which was concurred in by Adee, Clark, and the Latin American Division, and which is
The Honorable
The Secretary of State.
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heartily approved by General Wood, General Davis, and General Crowder. General Wood is going to Long Island today to see Secretary Stimson and will let me know whether the Secretary is satisfied with the draft, and if not what changes he suggests. Monday I expect [thus] to have a draft representing the views of the War Department and of those of us who are here. A copy of it in its present form is herewith submitted for your comment and directions. I intend to send a copy, when Mr. Stimson is satisfied, to the President mentioning that a copy is in your hands. I suppose then the President will say to let it go out if you approve. I hope you will approve because it seems to me that if we go much further with an invertebrate policy in Panama we shall find ourselves in a position of not daring to "call our souls our own" in a country where, upon every reasonable principle, we should obviously be paramount.
Herewith are some copies of correspondence in Mexico, which have also been sent to the President. I am sorry to say that they do not at all shake our sad conviction that there are many "breakers ahead" in that quarter. The promise to send one thousand troops to Torrson removes, I hope, actual danger to American citizens at that place during the national holidays the middle of the month.
Apparently that little Shantung loan will be done, if at all, by the Germans alone. We felt sure that with the French and English backing you would not be willing to force the American
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group in against its judgment. What with flood, famine, and Szechuan disturbances things are in a pretty mess in China.
Hoping you are having a good time and regretting the duty to send you the present "reading matter", I remain always
Yours very sincerely,
[signature]
[Please give my compliments to Mrs. Knox and remember me to Hugh if he is there.]
[H. W.]
Language
English
Rights Statement
Please contact the Myrin Library Special Collections Department for permissions to use this document. https://www.ursinus.edu/library/archives-special-collections/
Recommended Citation
Huntington-Wilson, Francis Mairs, "Letter From Francis Mairs Huntington-Wilson to Philander C. Knox, September 9, 1911" (1911). Correspondence With Philander C. Knox. 35.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/fmhw_knox/35
Comments
The document is stamped in the lower left corner: "A true copy of the signed original."