No. 637.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. de
Muruaga.
Washington, March 10, 1887.
Sir: I had the honor to receive this morning the note which you were pleased to address to me under date of the 8th instant, urgently inviting attention to the reports which have reached you from the consul of Spain at Key West, that certain named Spanish malcontents are openly recruiting men at Tampa and Key West, for the purpose of a filibustering expedition against the island of Cuba.
As on previous occasions when similar statements have been made to this Department by the diplomatic representative of Spain, copy of your note has been promptly transmitted to the Secretary of the Treasury and the Attorney-General, with the request that the agents of those respective Departments in the localities named by you shall, in concert as far as may be practicable, take all proper precautions to frustrate any open violation of law, such as you seem to apprehend.
I have the honor, at the same time, to renew to you the suggestion heretofore made on like occasions, that the Spanish officials on the spot be instructed to make, or cause to be made, before the proper judicial authority, formal declaration of any facts of their knowledge which may inculpate the authors of such violations of law, and so set in motion the machinery necessary to the administration of justice.
Accept, etc.,