No. 318.
Sir Edward
Thornton to Mr. Hunter.
Sir: In compliance with an instruction which I have received from the Marquis of Salisbury, I have the honor to inform you with reference to the Liberian boundary commission on which the Government of the United States, at the request of that of Her Majesty, was good enough to name Commodore Shufeldt as arbitrator. It appears from the reports of the British commissioners of the 26th of April and 1st of May last, that in consequence of the British commissioners being satisfied that the territories referred to in the deeds of cession produced by the Liberian Government had no existence, the commission came to a conclusion on the 24th of April last, and that the joint commissioners so informed Commodore Shufeldt in their letter of the same day.
I am now instructed to request the Government of the United States, through you, to convey to that officer the best thanks of Her Majesty’s Government for the interest in and attention to the labors of the commission shown by him, although no occasion offered itself for the commissioners to avail themselves of his services as arbitrator.
I am also to request the Government of the United States to convey to the commodore the expression of the sincere regret which has been felt by Her Majesty’s Government, that, owing to the unfortunate delays occasioned in the first instance by the non-arrival at the time originally specified of the instructions to the British commissioners, and secondly, by the adjournment of the commission at the request of the Liberian commissioners from the 14th of February to the 1st of April, he should have been put to inconvenience by so lengthened a detention in the neighborhood of Sierra Leone.
I have, &c.,