No. 359.
Mr. Bassett to Mr. Fish.
Port au Prince, September 15, 1873. (Received Oct. 8.)
Sir: I have gained knowledge of an instruction from Earl Granville to Her Britannic Majesty’s diplomatic representative to Hayti and St. Domingo, which charges my colleague to inform the government of St. Domingo that, according to the suggestion and request made by the chargé d’affaires of that republic in London, Her Majesty’s government, while insisting that the government of St. Domingo must, on account of the principles of public law involved in the case, be considered responsible for all charges growing out of the detention of the Dominican insurgent steamer Telégrafo at Tortola in 1867, are nevertheless willing and do consent to refer certain points relative to those charges to an arbitrator to be named by Her Majesty’s government.
This fact appears to be worthy of mention as another indication of the increasing and commendable disposition “to settle the disputes of nations “by peaceful arbitration rather than “by the bayonet and the broadside,” and as one evidence of the willingness of Great Britain in its dealings with a weaker nation to adhere to the great principles out of which grew the treaty of Washington.
I am, &c.,