No. 632.
Mr. de
Muruaga to Mr. Bayard.
December 14, 1886. (Received December 17.)
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Spain, has the honor to inform the Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, Secretary of State, that in pursuance of negotiations conducted during the past few months by the cabinet of Madrid, the Government of Germany, desiring to furnish evidence of its friendship for Her Majesty the Queen Regent and the Spanish Government, has renounced the right to establish a naval station for the Imperial German navy on one of the Caroline or Pelew Islands, which was conceded to it by article 5 of the protocol signed at Rome, December 17, 1885.
The renunciation has been embodied in a declaration which was exchanged on the 20th of August last, by Count Benomar, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Majesty at Berlin, and Count von Berchem, assistant secretary of state for foreign affairs, in charge of the ministry, and ratified by a special note addressed on the 28th of the same month (August) to the minister of state of Spain by Baron von Gutschmidt, chargé d’affaires of Germany at Madrid.
In consequence thereof, article 5 of the protocol signed at Rome, December 27, 1885, is annulled, and the sovereignty of Spain over the entire territory of the Caroline or Pelew Islands remain unimpaired.
The undersigned, in obedience to instructions of his Government, hastens to inform the honorable Secretary of State of this fact, in order that he may be pleased to bring it to the knowledge of the Federal Government, and he gladly avails himself, etc.