Mr. White to Mr.
Foster.
Legation of
the United States,
London, January 4, 1893.
(Received January 16, 1893.)
No. 885.]
Sir: Referring to your instruction, No. 988, of 7th
ultimo, I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of a further note which
I addressed to the Earl of Rosebery with respect to the conduct of Capt.
Davis, of Her Majesty’s ship Royalist, and of his
lordship’s reply.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 885.]
Lord Rosebery to
Mr. White.
Foreign
Office,
December 27,
1892,
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your note of the 22d instant complaining of the conduct of
Capt. Davis, of Her Majesty’s ship Royalist,
towards Mr. Kustel, an American citizen, in the Gilbert Islands, and I
hasten to assure you that the matter will receive attention.
At the same time I think it right to state that the report already
received from Capt. Davis of the incident in question gives reason for
grave doubt whether Mr. Kustel’s account is accurate or whether he is a
witness worthy of credit.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 885.]
Mr. White to Lord
Rosebery.
Legation of the United States,
London, December 22,
1892.
My Lord: I have the honor to acquaint your
lordship that the Secretary of State has read with much satisfaction
your note to me of the 24th ultimo, in reply to mine of the 21st,
relative to the action of Capt. Davis, of Her Majesty’s ship Royalist, in respect to the U. S. Commercial
Agent at Butaritari, and to the recognition and protection of the rights
and interests of United States citizens in the Gilbert Islands; and I
beg to add that your lordship’s frank assurances that these rights and
interests will be fully recognized and respected by the British
Government is, in the opinion of my Government, as gratifying as it was
confidently to be expected from the friendly sense of justice and regard
for international prerogatives which animate Her Majesty’s
Government.
With regard to Capt. Davis, I am informed that many details have reached
the Department of State, supported by trustworthy testimony, which
suggest that his language and conduct ill reflect that temperate,
impartial, and commendable exercise of authority which it must
necessarily be the design of Her Majesty’s Government to observe in
assuming a protectorate over the Gilbert Islands; and Mr. Secretary
Foster, while averse to giving to the correspondence on the subject a
tone of mere complaint of that officer’s deportment, feels nevertheless
that it is due to submit, in a friendly spirit, to your lordship, for
the information of Her Majesty’s Government, a report which he has
received recently, and which I have the honor to [Page 308] inclose herewith, showing the
arbitrary conduct and intemperate manners of Capt. Davis and his
remarkable assumption of power and authority to condemn, ex parte and without a hearing, a citizen of the
United States for an offense alleged to have been committed in one of
the islands of the Gilbert Group half a year before the announcement of
Her Majesty’s protectorate was made.
The Secretary of State, feeling assured that your lordship shares his
view that the manifestations of authority under such a protectorate
should claim cordial acquiescence and command respect, as well by their
intrinsic merits as by the high character and dignified temperance of
the agencies by which they are carried out, is convinced that your
lordship’s feelings of regret and chagrin upon reading the graphic
statement, transmitted herewith, of Capt. Davis’s unseemly profanity and
overbearing demeanor will be closely akin to those which he has himself
experienced, and that doubts similar to those felt by him will arise in
the mind of your lordship as to the appropriateness of such an
instrumentality as Capt. Davis for carrying out the friendly assurances
which your note so unhesitatingly gives, of recognition and respect for
American rights and interests in the Gilbert Islands.
I have, etc.,
