American man-of-war. A few days later the Spanish Government conceded Carranza's right to expel Caro under the circumstances, incidentally exposing the impropriety of the numerous "rescues" of reactionaries the Administration was at that time staging on Mexican soil.
Carranza was in possession of the Tampico oil region. On the arrival of his forces there, the Administration advised the oil companies against paying taxes to him, and warned him against trying to collect such taxes. In January, Carranza placed an embargo on oil shipments, as a means to enforcing the collection of taxes. Bryan wired a command to Carranza to remove the embargo, threatening "serious consequences." American warships were sent to Tampico, and the threat of intervention made it possible for foreign ships to get away from Mexican harbors without the payment of taxes.
At the same time Wilson was making representations against the Carranza oil decree, which embodied the first formal move toward conserving the petroleum deposits for the Mexican people. He was also making representations against the Carranza land decree, which embodied the first formal move, on a national scale, toward restoring the lands to the Mexican people.
The Spanish business element had, to a large extent, made common cause with Huerta, as had many of the Spanish clergy. When Villa made his peace with the Reaction, these elements transferred their allegiance to the bandit. Acting under Article Thirty-three of the Mexican Constitution, Obregon and Carranza expelled a number of Spanish priests and other Spaniards. Wilson protested violently against action of this sort, and, in a second protest, warned Carranza of "the terrible risk" "from without" which he ran, by reason of his "contempt for the rights and safety of those who represent religion." March 4, Captain Williams of the Cruiser Cleveland peremptorily compelled the release from the Manzanillo jail of three Spaniards and took them on board the Cleveland.
During this same period, the Constitutionalists confiscated the estates of Felix Diaz and other conspicuous plotters of the old regime. The Wilson Administration protested against any action being taken, "that savors of confiscation." Carranza replied, asking what our Colonial Revolutionists did with the estates of the Tories in Seventy-Six.
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