No. 196.
Mr. Evarts
to Mr. Welsh.
Department
of State,
Washington, November 8,
1878.
No. 173.]
Sir: The question of the payment of the amount
awarded by the Halifax commission is still held under consideration, and may
be till the last moment. You will receive timely instructions by telegraph
for your guidance in any aspect of the matter which may be presented.
In the mean time it is not foreseen that the payment, if finally resolved on
by this government, could under any circumstances be properly made, without
being accompanied by a formal notice of the grounds upon which the payment
is made, without any change of views on our part respecting the award and
the positions this government has assumed in its correspondence with the
British Government on the subject.
I therefore inclose a form of notice and protest, with which you will
accompany the payment of the money should you be instructed to make such
payment.
I am, &c.,
[Page 316]
[Inclosure in No. 173.]
Form of notice referred to.
My Lord: I have been instructed by the
President of the United States to tender to Her Majesty’s Government the
sum of $5,500,000 in gold coin, this being the sum named by the two
concurring members of the Fisheries Commission (lately sitting at
Halifax under authority imparted thereto by the treaty of Washington) to
be paid by the Government of the United States to the Government of Her
Britannic Majesty.
I am also instructed by the President to say that such payment is made
upon the ground that the Government of the United States desires to
place the maintenance of good faith in treaties and the security and
value, of arbitration between nations above all questions in its
relations with Her Britannic Majesty’s Government as with all other
governments.
Under this motive the Government of the United States decides to separate
the question of withholding payment from the considerations touching the
obligation of this payment, which have been presented to Her Majesty’s
Government in correspondence, and which it reserves and insists
upon.
I am, besides, instructed by the President to say that the Government of
the United States deems it of the greatest importance to the common and
friendly interests of the two governments in all future treatment of any
questions relating to the North American fisheries, that Her Britannic
Majesty’s Government should be distinctly advised that the Government of
the United States cannot accept the result of the Halifax commission as
furnishing any just measure of the value of a participation by our
citizens in the inshore fisheries of the British provinces; and it
protests against the actual payment now made being considered by Her
Majesty’s Government as in any sense an acquiescence in such measure or
as warranting any inference to that effect.
