No. 693.
Mr. Baker to Mr.
Bayard.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Caracas, May 11, 1885.
(Received May 22.)
No. 93.]
Sir: Your No. 58, of date 21st ultimo, relative to
the custody of ships’ papers in Venezuelan ports, was received on the 5th
instant, and at the earliest possible moment I have executed the instruction
therein contained by addressing a note on the subject, of this date, to
Señor Qüenza, a copy of which I inclose herewith.
You will have seen from my No. 49, of date March 23, that I had properly
resumed the matter before the date of your said No. 58.
* * * * * * *
I have certainly urged the matter insistently and persistently, but there
appears to be an obstinate reluctance on the part of this Government to make
the desired change in the laws of the country respecting the custody of
foreign ships’ papers; and, as tending to explain this reluctance, I draw
special attention to my No. 912, of date April 30, 1884.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 93.]
Mr. Baker to Mr.
Qüenza.
Legation of the United States,
Caracas, May 11,
1885.
Sir: Referring to the interview I had with your
excellency on the 23d of March relative to the custody of foreign ships’
papers while in the ports of Venezuela, and referring generally to the
antecedents of that matter in your excellency’s ministry, and especially
to my memorandum on the subject, of date May 10, 1883, and of what Señor
Seijas said relative thereto in his Memoria for 1884, page 43, I have
the honor to inform your excellency that on the 5th instant I received a
very earnest and urgent, though entirely friendly, despatch from my
Government in relation to the same matter, in which I am instructed “to
at once take occasion to press upon the Venezuelan Government the
necessity for a modification of the law complained of for the conclusive
reasons already advanced.”
Your excellency will observe from the cited memoria of Mr. Seijas that
the Government of Great Britain has concurred with that of the United
States in the “desire that a change may be introduced in the national
legislation which may permit the respective consuls to keep such
documents, now deposited by authority of the law in the custody of the
custom-house administrators.”
I believe the reasons set out in my said memorandum are conclusive. I
know that the feeling of your excellency’s government towards the United
States is remarkably friendly, and I again earnestly and urgently, but
in the most friendly manner possible, draw attention to the propriety
and importance of making the desired change in the existing law of
Venezuela on the subject of the custody of foreign ships’ papers while
in her ports.
I with pleasure avail, &c.
