Page:Mexico's dilemma.djvu/116

96 of the American gunboats in the Pánuco River. The strikers were openly and notoriously paid during this tie-up out of the office of the German Consul, Eversbusch.

The Imperial German Empire has a Minister in Mexico, Consuls in all important centres, and intelligent Germans scattered throughout the country. They are hand-picked Germans. They are most friendly with the Mexican authorities. The Mexican army has many officers of German birth and training. Fortunately for the Allies, the oil fields are in the hands of a counter-revolutionist, with a personal interest in the safety of the fields. Should he (Manuel Pelaez) be driven out by the German-officered Carranzistas, the wells now producing would be in danger; but such damage as they could do would be repaired within two weeks after the arrival of American troops in the fields.

By the "constitutional" articles quoted above, the Germans have three excellent means of blocking the oil supply of the Allies:

(1) By protesting against the shipment to belligerents of a contraband material declared to be the property of the Mexican Government.

(2) By encouraging the de facto government to increase export taxes to the prohibitive point.

(3) By fomenting strikes in terminals and in the fields and attendant legalised destruction of oil in storage.