Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1881

No. 54.
Mr. Putnam to Mr. Blaine.

[Extract.]

Legation of the United States,
Brussels, July 18, 1881. (Received July 30.)

No. 84.]

Sir: I have the honor to state that Mr. Frère, director-general of the foreign office, called upon me at the legation on the 16th instant. Referring to the interview narrated in my dispatch No. 74, he said that the statement he then made was informal, but that he now called, by instruction of the minister of foreign affairs, to state to me officially that His Majesty the King of Belgium, when officially informed of his selection as arbitrator under the treaty between Costa Rica and Colombia, would decline that trust. * * *

I have, &c.,

JAMES O. PUTNAM.