Sheffield Out

Last week crate-counters smiled, rubbed hands, said "I told you so." When James Rockwell Sheffield, U. S. Ambassador to Mexico, had left Mexico City last month for what was announced as a vacation, skeptics had spied upon his baggage, counted some 27 crates of personal and household effects. Who, vacation bound, would travel so heavily freighted? Ambassador Sheffield, they concluded, was not coming back.

As thus predicted, the Ambassador did resign. He called on President Coolidge at Custer Park, requested relief from his post in a formal letter: "It is with deepest regret. . . has been a great privilege . . . great honor. . . your wise comprehension. . . unfailing kindness . . . generous support . . . . With my earnest wishes for health and strength in the carrying on of your great burdens . . . ." To which the President replied: "Your formal letter . . . has been received. . . . Your services. . . able and distinguished. . . sincere appreciation . . . courage and ability . . . I shall always feel under obligations to you. . . ." Relieved, the Ambassador remained at the State Lodge for a few days, planned then to travel east, to take ship for Europe.

Rumors of a Sheffield resignation began to circulate as far back as last summer when the Ambassador visited the U. S. for a conference with the President, then vacationing in the Adirondacks. For that trip, however, the Ambassador had purchased a round-trip ticket, and he was soon back in Mexico City. (President Coolidge in the letter quoted above referred to "the suggestion you made in the summer of 1926--that you did not wish to remain in Mexico . . .")

Returning (in 1926), the Ambassador ran into a series of complications. There was the incident of the suspected Bolshevist influence in the Mexican Government. There was the war between the Calles Administration and the Roman Catholic Church. Later there were the documents stolen from the U. S. Department of State and discovered in the custody of the Mexican Government. These documents were particularly annoying inasmuch as they contained many unpleasant reflections on the Mexican Government, but their most sensational passages were later found to be forgeries, interpolated by the same knavish hand which first had stolen them.

Worst of all, there was the Mexican Government's plan to enforce article No. 27 of the Mexican Constitution of 1917 which declared that lands held in Mexico by foreigners were not the property of those foreigners but belonged to the Mexican State. This theory of nationalization of the land appealed to many U. S. property holders (especially oil magnates) in Mexico as a pernicious and unsound doctrine. It was denounced as confiscatory, especially since Mexican officials were planning to make their Constitution retroactive and to invalidate titles secured long before the 1917 document was written. So Ambassador Sheffield led no entirely placid existence.

As is usually the case, two very different stories were told concerning his motive in resigning. Administration supporters were inclined to attribute his departure to ill-health. To be sure, he had said, on leaving Mexico, that his health was "magnificent." After his arrival at Custer Park, however, it was explained that while the Ambassador was, at present, in the best of health, nevertheless he did not feel that the high altitude of Mexico City (built on a plateau among high mountains) was good for him. It had not as yet done him any harm but it might prove injurious should he continue long in it.

Meanwhile Democrats maintained that the resignation was prompted chiefly by the Ambassador's desire to handle Mexican affairs with a firmer grip than was acceptable to the U. S. Department of State. Malcontents observed that the strong hand had been tried in Nicaragua with the result that travelers in the little Central American republic beheld Marine views on every hand and Rear Admiral Julian L. Latimer had been excused from his command in order to pay a visit to his sick daughter in Balboa, Panama. It was suggested that the Administration had decided to try in Mexico, at least, the efficacy of the soft voice and the friendly smile.

Hans Frederick Arthur Schoenfeld, charge d'affaires, will represent the U. S. in Mexico for at least the next two months. Meanwhile the U. S.-Mexican situation is crowded with prospectively troublesome situations. The Mexican Government has been marking time on the land nationalization question, but a test case with a U. S. oil company is pending portentously. Furthermore the Mexicans have a presidential election in 1928, and there is always the possibility that Mexican presidential booms will come largely from cannon. However, the new Ambassador will inherit one helpful advantage in dealing with present and future Mexican governments--the fact that the U. S. embargo on shipment of arms into Mexico has been and will be a contributing cause to the peace and stability of internal Mexican affairs.