Mr. Curry to Mr.
Bayard.
No. 136.]
Legation of the
United States,
Madrid, October 23, 1886.
(Received November 6.)
Sir: I have the honor to inclose a note which I
addressed to the minister of state. In Mr. Strobel’s 112, September 8, 1886,
he reported ineffectual efforts to secure a fulfillment of a positive
promise. In an unofficial note of 20th instant Mr. Moret says, “I am sorry
to say the Mora case can not go further without the settlement of our
commercial troubles. My colleague objects strongly to it.”
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 136.]
Mr. Curry to Señor
Moret.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, October 12,
1886.
Excellency: On June 30 last you kindly sent me
a note, saying “the Spanish Government” has not “hesitated,” in the case
of the claim of Antonio Maximo Mora, in proposing the delivery of an
amount in cash which may represent an equitable indemnity of the value
of that property. You further said if I accepted the proposition we
shall be able to fix by mutual agreement the amount of the indemnity, in
view of the facts and antecedents which already exist in the papers,
after which the minister of the colonies shall be able to include in his
budget the sum we may have agreed upon. Promptly, on the part of the
Government of the United States, I accepted the proposition. More than
three months have elapsed, and, so far as this legation has knowledge,
no progress has been made in agreeing upon the “equitable indemnity,”
although the representative of the United States has, for that purpose,
held himself entirely “at the disposition” of your excellency.
For sixteen years the unfortunate citizen of the United States has
suffered from the spoliation of his property. The weary years have
dragged their slow length along, while he has been impoverished and
crushed. As there is a limit to human patience, so it would seem there
should be a limit to the negotiations connected with this claim. Every
principle, essential and non essential, involved in the claim has
[Page 367]
been adjudicated by the
Government of Spain. Nothing remains except to agree on the equitable
indemnity and to pay the money. May I not ask your excellency, in
justice to a man whom the Government has repeatedly admitted that the
Cuban authorities grossly wronged, to give this matter prompt and
decisive attention?
Receive, etc.,
