No. 101.
Mr. Washburne to Mr.
Fish
No. 353.]
Legation of the United States, Paris,
January 30, 1871. (Received February
18.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose you herewith a
copy of a letter I have received from Count de Bismarck, in reply to my
letter to him on the subject of the dispatch-bag.
I have, &c.,
[Page 291]
Count de Bismarck to Mr. E. B. Washburne
Versailles, January 28, 1871.
Sir: I had the honor of receiving your answer,
dated the 19th instant, to my two letters of 15th, relating to your
correspondence with the United States legation in London. I should very
much regret if you should have construed anything in these two letters
so as to convey the indication, of any complaint against you. Nothing,
indeed, could be further from my thought, and I take pleasure in
renewing the expression how deeply sensible I am of all the trouble you
have in carrying on your correspondence with the authorities in Paris,
and in taking care of our countrymen there. But the balloon letters
having been brought officially under my notice by the military
authorities, I thought it my duty to inform you of the reference made in
those letters to your legation, and to that in London. The delay
occurred now and then in the transmission of your dispatch-bags, is not
occasioned by any doubt as to the right of your Government to correspond
with you, but by obstacles it was out of my power to remove. I hope that
for the future there will not be any more delay of that kind.
I avail myself, &c., &c.,
