No. 737.
Mr. Noyes to Mr. Blaine.
[Extract.]
Legation of the United States,
Paris, May 16, 1881.
(Received May 31.)
No. 467.]Sir: As I had the honor of informing you by my
cipher dispatch of the 6th instant, immediately after receiving your
telegram of the same day in relation to the Venezuelan matter, I
repaired to the foreign office, and explained your desire to M.
Barthelemy St. Hilaire.
He said he was grateful to you for the kind intervention, and that he
would take it into consideration with every disposition to accept your
proposition, but that the circumstances of the case were such that some
deliberation was necessary. He then stated, with all due caption of
language, that the Venezuelan Government had not acted fairly with
France; that after agreeing to certain payments, it had, under different
pretexts, abstained from keeping its engagements, and that now, contrary
to a plain understanding and a written pledge, it wanted to give
preference over the claims of France, or to place on the same footing,
other claims which were not entitled to such treatment.
* * * * * * *
He promised, however, that he would act promptly, and in order to
facilitate his answer I left with him a note embodying the substance of
your dispatch. My telegram of the 14th instant gave you a resumé of this answer, which I now send in full
with a translation. Mr. de Rojas, the minister of Venezuela here, whose
official relations with the French Government are now suspended, has
called on me to-day and has expressed the hope that the Government of
the United States will continue to intervene, in order in some equitable
manner to settle the pending difficulty, and that as prompt action as is
convenient will be had.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No.
467.—Translation.]
Note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the
United States Minister at Paris.
By a verbal note of the 6th instant General Noyes made known that,
upon applica tion of the cabinet of Caracas, the United States might
consent, without guaranteeing any portion of the Venezuelan debt, to
take charge of receiving and distributing the increased monthly
installments designed by that state for the payment of the foreign
claims diplomatically admitted.
The American Government asks, that while this proposition is under
consideration,
[Page 1213]
France
will suspend its action on account of her debt, and it tenders its
best offices to adjust the difference existing between her and
Venezuela.
The Government of the French Republic is assuredly appreciative of
this mark of good will, and it cannot but acquiesce in the desire
expressed to it that all action on its part be temporarily
suspended.
As to the combination submitted by Venezuela to the Government of the
United States for the receiving and distribution of dividends, the
French Government would have no objection if all the debts,
diplomatically admitted, were placed on the same equal footing. But
it must remark that the treaties of 1864 have created to the
advantage of a certain class of French creditors a privileged
situation, which it cannot at this time renounce.
On the other hand the Venezuelan Government has openly expressed the
intention of no more acknowledging the convention in force, of
discontinuing the liquidation of the French pending claims, and even
of not increasing the monthly installments appropriated to the
redeeming of its diplomatie debt. It seems therefore difficult for
the good offices of the Washington cabinet to be made useful, unless
the Venezuelan Government be brought back to a just appreciation of
its treaty obligations, to be made the point of departure for
acceptable propositions.
