Mexican Railway Company Limited Records

* Small archive of a British company with large holdings in Mexican railroads. Most of the correspondence deals with the early 1920s and the damage to the company's property, and also with the delicate balance of the labor and management relationship.

The period covered includes the December 1923 rebellion against Obregón by Adolfo de la Huerta and the continuing chaos in Mexico. There are very detailed accounts of the damages sustained to the company's rolling stock and rail beds. In June 1923 there is a letter from Holloway to Yorke concerning various matters:"Banco Unico. I saw De la Huerta the day before I left and he seemed very pleased with the progress then made. He did hope that London would take an interest in it and hinted that he did not want it to be all 'Gringo.' Of course he got back on the old subject of recognition and said that we British were losing a grand opportunity to obtain the lasting gratitude of the Mexican Nation...Labour. This as you say is a serious matter for us...most of the demands made by our men are based on the demands made and granted in the States, and our men are far more reasonable. I look upon the labour question in the States as one of the most serious problems they have to face just now. The restriction of immigration has deprived them of a plentiful supply of cheap labour and tends to make the actual labour available independent and very aggressive. It is also having a serious effect on the coloured people." He goes on to mention the migration within the States of the black population moving northwards and the labor shortage it was causing in Arkansas where he had visited on his way to New York, where there was concern that there would not be enough labor to bring in the food crops as well as the cotton. (See Item 5).

This archive underlines the massive British investments in Mexico, calculated by Vincent Yorke in his letter to Ponsonby of the Foreign Office as over £200,000,000 (two hundred million sterling) in 1924 (See item 12).

In item 15 Holloway discusses the fact that the United States was offering arms and ammunitions to the government of Mexico, apparently the first time the Americans had overtly offered any assistance to the Mexican government, but this offer had caused a furor among the general public who felt that the Americans had an ulterior motive behind their offer which, they felt, was not made out of friendship alone.

This material was found in an envelope addressed to the Chairman of the Board, Vincent Yorke, and much of it is from his Resident Manager in Mexico City.

* Description and item list below based on that of the rare books dealer at time of acquisition.