Legation of the United States,
Madrid, August 27, 1894.
(Received September 10.)
No. 227.]
I inclose herewith a copy of my note, hoping that it may meet with your
approval. I suppose the check for the $17,500, mailed to you on the 13th
(No. 209) of July, has been duly received, although there has been no
acknowledgment of it.
[Inclosure in No. 227.]
Mr. Taylor to
Señor Moret.
Legation of the United States of America,
Madrid, August 27, 1894.
Excellency: It now becomes my duty, under
special instructions from my Government, to call your attention to
that aspect of the affair at Ponape which still remains for
adjustment.
In my note to you of July 14 I had the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of the sum of $17,500 in American gold in settlement for
certain pecuniary losses sustained by the missionaries at Ponape
during the troubles of 1887 and 1890, according to the agreement of
my Government as expressed to you in my note of January 9, 1894,
upon that subject. In that note, in reply to yours of the 12th of
October, 1893, I expressed the willingness of my Government to
accept the indemnity for the pecuniary aspect of the matter without
thereby waiving, either expressly or by implication, its coincident
demand for the return of the despoiled American citizens to the spot
where they have established vested and recognized rights through
half a century of residence and tenure. That aspect of the matter,
as your excellency will remember, was postponed for the moment under
the assurance contained in your note of the 12th of October, 1893,
that “the Government of His Majesty, ratifying what it has already
promised, will be specially careful, as soon as the reports from the
superior authorities of the Philippines (who have again been
consulted) permit it, to announce to the Washington Government the
date at which the missionaries may effect their return to Ponape
without any risk.”
It is now with the greatest satisfaction that my Government is able
to announce to you, what of course you already know, that Señor Don
Juan de la Concha, the present governor of the Carolines, has
expressed himself very fully and formally upon this subject to the
effect that he is willing to grant permission to the said
missionaries to return to the field of their labors, with full
protection both as to life and property, the moment that he is
permitted to do so by His Majesty’s Government at Madrid; that he
only awaits inquiries from that source in order to urge the return
of the missionaries most heartily. This opinion and resolution of
the governor of the Carolines, which has been duly and officially
communicated to my Government, has no doubt by this time been
communicated to your excellency. As the views thus expressed by the
governor of the Carolines removes the last obstacle to the return of
the missionaries, my Government directs me to ask of your excellency
to grant at once the necessary permission, so long delayed, for
their return.
I seize, etc.,
