Mr. Blaine to Sir Julian Pauncefote.
Washington, December 14, 1891.
Sir: I have the honor to advise you that I submitted your note of the 11th instant to the President. After mature deliberation he has instructed me to say that he objects to Lord Salisbury’s making any reservation at all, and that he can not yield to him the light to appeal to the arbitrators to decide any point not embraced in the articles of arbitration. The President does not admit that Lord Salisbury can reserve the right in any way to affect the decision of the arbitrators. We understand that the arbitration is to proceed on the seven points which are contained in the articles which you and I certify were the very points agreed upon by the two Governments.
For Lord Salisbury to claim the right to submit this new point to the arbitrators is to entirely change the arbitration. The President might in like manner submit several questions to the arbitrators, and thus enlarge the subject to such an extent that it would not be the same arbitration to which we have agreed. The President claims the right to have the seven points arbitrated and respectfully insists that Lord Salisbury shall not change their meaning in any particular. The matters to be arbitrated must be distinctly understood before the arbitrators are chosen. And after an arbitration is agreed to neither of the parties can enlarge or contract its scope.
[Page 604]I am prepared now, as I have been heretofore, to sign the articles of agreement without any reservation whatever, and for that purpose I shall be glad to have you call at the State Department on Wednesday, the 16th instant, at 11 o’clock a.m.
I have, etc.,