MEXICAN GENERAL

POLITICAL NOTES

"Mexican General"

Alvan Tufts Fuller, freespoken Governor of Massachusetts, has a freespoken secretary, one Herman A. MacDonald. Referring publicly to a lately deposed Massachusetts official, Secretary MacDonald called the official "nutty" and said that he was being chased by squirrels. He also called him a "Mexican General."

As a result, last week, Secretary of State Kellogg, Mexican Ambassador Don Manuel C. Tellez and Governor Fuller received copies of a letter to Governor Fuller from Senor R. G. Dommguez, Mexican Consul at Boston. ". . . An offensive phrase against the Mexicans," protested Consul Dommguez. cannot let this phrase go unheeded. . . . I duly protest before your Excellency for the harmful offense hurled by your above-mentioned employee. . . ."

Alarmed but also annoyed at seeing his bright quip give rise to international complications, Secretary MacDonald sent by special messenger a cleverly equivocal note to Consul Dominguez. "In that statement," he said, "the term 'Mexican General' was used in no way referring to the genuine Mexican generals who have shown ability and valor, but to the guerilla generals in Mexico, who for many years have infested that country to its detriment."

Angered afresh, Consul Dominguez replied instantly to Secretary MacDonald, also by special messenger: ". . . In my belief your excuse is puerile. My protest to the governor for the insult you made ... still remains until his excellency replies to me. ... In view of the seriousness and import because of my position as consul for Mexico the matter remains wholly to be settled between the head of the State and myself."