No. 10.
Earl Granville to Mr. West.
Foreign
Office, March 1,
1871.
Sir: I have consulted the law-officers of
the Grown upon the point submitted to me in your dispatch of the
24th February, as to the claims of British subjects to be
indemnified for the loss of property during the war; and I have now
to acquaint you that I am advised by them that Her Majesty’s
subjects resident in France, whose property has been destroyed
during the war, cannot expect to be compensated, on the ground of
their being British subjects, for losses which the necessities of
war have brought upon them in common with French subjects.
I am, &c.,
Foreign Office, March 28, 1871.
Sir: I am directed by Earl Granville to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 22d instant,
containing a statement of certain property possessed by you in
Paris and the neighborhood, and referring to the losses which
you state you have sustained in consequence of the occupation of
such property by French and German troops, and requesting that
your interests may be placed under the protection of Lord Lyons,
with the object of your claim being ultimately urged upon the
French government on account of such losses and
dilapidations.
I am now to inform you that Lord Granville has taken the opinion
of the law-officers of the Crown as to the liability of the
French government to compensate British subjects resident in
France for loss and damage to their property during the Me war,
and that his lordship has been advised by them that the British
subjects resident in France would have, in their opinion, no
just ground of complaint against the French authorities in the
event of their property having been destroyed by the invading
armies; their losses under such circumstances would be among the
inevitable consequences of war raging in a state within [Page 369] which they have
chosen, as foreigners, to take up their residence; and with
regard to such losses British subjects would not be entitled to
claim any compensation from the French authorities.
I am, &c.,
