No. 728.
Mr. Evarts to Señor Camacho.

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 7th instant, wherein, referring to our preceding interviews on the subject, you present a project of a conventional agreement between the United States of America and the United States of Venezuela, looking to the distribution, through the agency of the United States, of the monthly payments made by Venezuela upon her foreign diplomatic debt.

In our conferences since then I have given you to understand the appreciative spirit in which this government receives and considers so gratifying a mark of the friendly confidence with which Venezuela looks to the United States in matters which, like this, affect in any wise the relations of the American continent to the powers of the Old World.

The subject had before been brought to my attention, although in a less tangible and advanced form, by the notification made to Mr. Jehu Baker at Caracas by Señor Saavedra, minister of foreign affairs, that the Government of Venezuela proposed the renewal of the negotiations of 1872 to the end of concluding a convention under which the Government of the United States should receive and distribute to the several creditor governments an ascertained monthly sum on account of the foreign debt of Venezuela. The intimation so made by Señor Saavedra bears date October 9, 1880.

It is unnecessary to my present purpose to compare the proposal now submitted with that of 1872, which contemplated the administration of the customs revenues of Venezuela under the direct supervisory control of the United States, and the collection and payment at Caracas, by the United States minister resident there, to the foreign representatives, of a stipulated percentage of those customs revenues.

Looking at the proposition as practically made de novo and so regarding it in its general aspect, it would seem to import the fiduciary capacity of the Government or the United States merely with respect to such sums as it would receive from that of Venezuela, without assuming either the obligations of suretyship or guarantee as regards the proposed, foreign payments, or any arbitral or mediatorial function as between the foreign creditor governments and Venezuela in event of possible question concerning the merits of the debts or the amount of the payment; that is to say, that the friendly office asked of the Government of the United States would in no wise imply the assumption of the responsibilities of a fidejussor with regard to the foreign diplomatic obligations of Venezuela.

Admitting that, in this aspect of the proposal, the Government of the United States would be disposed to accept and discharge the trust which, in principle, is again proffered by that of Venezuela, there might still remain for discussion the cognate questions of the effectiveness of the proposed arrangement as looking to the eventual payment of principal and interest of the debt, and of the manner in which the United States could fulfill the trust without cost, either to their own creditors or those of other governments on account of the transaction.

It would, however, in the view of this government, be premature to consider the proposed convention without knowing that the projected arrangement would be acceptable to all the creditor governments. It [Page 1200] would, therefore, seem advisable that the Government of Venezuela, if it has not already possessed itself of such knowledge, should learn the disposition of the Governments of Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, and Spain, and acquaint that of the United States therewith, unless, indeed, it be the desire of Venezuela that the Government of the United States should take the initiative in bringing the project to the knowledge of the creditor governments and obtaining their views thereon.

Accept, &c.,

WM. M. EVARTS.