Mr. Taylor to Mr.
Gresham.
No. 97.]
Legation of the
United States,
Madrid, January 4, 1894.
(Received January 17.)
Sir: In my No. 94, of the 30th ultimo, I had the
honor to inclose a copy of the memorandum submitted by me to the minister of
state, as my understanding of the conclusions reached by us in our interview
of Friday last, touching the Mora claim. Yesterday I received from the
minister of slate a reply to my memorandum, a copy of which, with
translation, I send herewith. I also inclose a copy of my reply to the note
of the minister of state.
You will observe that in my reply I have embodied the contents of your
cablegram of the 1st instant.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No.
97—Translation.]
Señor Moret to Mr.
Taylor.
Ministry of
State,
Palace,
January 1, 1894.
My Dear Sir: The note which, under date of the
29th, your excellency has been pleased to address to me for the purpose
of fixing the points discussed in our conversation of Friday did not
arrive at this ministry until yesterday, 31st.
Fully participating in your desire that that communication may serve to
well define the points of view and to rectify any difference of
understanding in regard to the agreement reached, while the remembrance
of that conversation is fresh, I must take the liberty of indicating to
you that the idea of seeking a solution of the conflict relative to the
Mora negotiations, by submitting two different projects of law to the
Cortes, by me in effect accepted, was proposed by your excellency, who
saw fit to formulate it when I declined, the idea of arbitration first
suggested.
It also behooves me to remind you that while, as minister of state, I
represent the Government of Her Majesty in its relations with foreign
representatives, and while as such I contract in its name the necessary
engagements, the presentation of the projects of law to which you refer
pertain to the minister of Ultramar, and they have also to be approved
by the council of ministers.
I desire also to state that the word unconditional, used by your excellency in reference to the project
of law looking to the payment of the Mora claim, should be applied to
the draft of the project, because if it were to signify an absolute
separation between that claim and those which Spain holds against the
Government of the United States, it would be unacceptable to me, because
it would be in opposition to
[Page 433]
the conclusion reached by Congress. But as I have no doubts in regard to
the intention, and as we both considered that while these two projects
of law, although to be introduced separately, are to be developed in a
parallel manner, as your excellency happily expressed it, I only make
this explanation.
With these exceptions, I am fully in accord with the exposition which
your excellency has made to me as to the spirit of our conversation, and
I am ready to examine with due care the draft which your Government may
send you for the adjustment of the Spanish claims, which proposal I will
submit definitively to the council of ministers.
I have only to add that, although our interview and conversation implied
an answer to the memorandum and note of the 14th of July which your
excellency had the kindness to send to me, as a courtesy to your
Government, and also as the means of rectifying certain views in it
contained, I consider it indispensable for the better understanding of
this matter to send to your excellency, as I will in a few days, another
memorandum which will serve as a reply to the note which your excellency
was so good as to send me on the date above referred to.
I avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 97.]
Mr. Taylor to Señor
Moret.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, January 4,
1894.
Excellency: Permit me to thank you for your
kind note of the 1st instant, from which I am happy to learn that we
agree so nearly as to the conclusions reached in our interview of Friday
last as to the Mora claim.
You will remember that the suggestion that the payment of that claim
should be made the subject of a separate project of law was not an
original suggestion of mine, but simply a revival of the suggestion to
that effect made by you in your note to my predecessor, Dr. Curry, dated
May 12, 1888, to which I specially referred. After we had agreed as to
the wisdom of that suggestion, we both concluded that the settlement of
the unadjusted claims and counterclaims pending between the two
countries should be made the subject of a separate convention.
I do not perceive in your note any substantial difference between us as
to the relations which the two projects of law are to bear to each
other. I did not intend to use the word “unconditional” when referring
to the separate project of law for the payment of the Mora claim in an
absolute sense; I understood, as you do, that while the two projects are
to be drafted separately they are to be developed in a parallel manner.
That is to say, my Government, in its note of July 14, 1893, expressed
its willingness, which still continues, to make at once a convention for
the settlement of all unadjusted claims, with the express understanding
that the payment of the Mora claim shall not await the proceedings under
such convention. As the Mora claim stands upon a deliberate and
unconditional promise to pay, now seven years old, my Government can
never consent, as I explained to you on Friday, that the fulfillment of
that unconditional promise shall be further delayed by reason of other
unadjusted claims with which the Mora claim has no connection. I
therefore understood that while the making of the separate provision for
the payment of the Mora claim and the signing of the convention for the
settlement of all unadjusted claims were to be concurrent acts, the
payment of the Mora claim was in no event to await the proceedings under
the convention. Such were the relations which I understood these
separate and parallel measures were to bear to each other.
I hope exceedingly that in the memorandum which you promise to send me in
a few days, as a more formal answer to the note of my Government, dated
July 14, 1893, you will be able to agree with me upon the vital point
involved in the relations which the two projects of law are to bear to
each other, because I have just received from the Secretary of State a
cablegram informing me that the Congress of the United States has called
for the papers in this matter.
Hoping that I will be able to transmit to my Government from you such a
memorandum as will preclude the necessity for any further parliamentary
action, except such as may be necessary for the approval of the draft of
the convention which I hope soon to submit to you,
I am, etc.,
