Office of the Historian

Mr. Wetter to Mr. Strobel.

Consulate of the United States,
Tamatave, February 7, 1894. (Received March 12.)
No. 10.]

Sir: I have the honor to call your attention to the following matters pertinent to ex-Consul Waller’s management of this office, as also to request instructions as to any action the Department may want taken here in these matters.

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4.
That all the statements and accounts of the estate of W. F. Crockett, deceased, have been entered by Mr. Waller on the records in the Malagasy language exclusively, and therefore are at present absolutely indecipherable. This is the more peculiar, as Mr. Waller, I understand, can neither read, write, nor speak the Malagasy language.
5.
That the records of this office have been so negligently kept that it is a most onerous task to examine them. None of the records have been indexed since Mr. Waller’s incumbency, and many of the other documents and letters have not been properly docketed and filed.
6.
That no official consular judicial court docket or record has been kept, the records of the court being upon loose sheets of paper folded up together.

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13.
That he has acted contrary to paragraph 373 in selling the perishable property of both the Crockett and Whitney estates without proper appraisement, etc.
14.
That he has violated paragraph 375 in not reporting to the State Department his commissions upon the Whitney and Crockett estates, also the latter portion of said paragraph in so far as the sale of Mr. Whitney’s trinkets, etc., were concerned.
15.
That he has violated paragraph 376, because Department dispatch No. 25 (January 9, 1893) gives positive instructions as to distribution of said estate of Crockett.
16.
That he has violated paragraphs 377 and 378, as far as the records of this office are concerned, in both the Whitney and Crockett cases.
17.
That he has violated paragraph 379, as far as the Whitney ease is concerned.
18.
That he has violated paragraph 634 in both the Whitney and Crockett estate cases.

I would further state that after a careful consideration of all the premises, I deem it my duty to prevent Mr. Waller’s leaving this country prior to his accounting, as administrator, to this consulate court for the Crockett estate and turning over of said estate to said court. Should he make no attempt to leave before I receive definite instructions from the Department I will take no further steps in the matter beyond collecting and preparing evidence in these cases.

I would in conclusion request definite instructions as to Mr. Waller’s administration of the Crockett estate; as to what shall be done with said estate, if recovered from him; as to the matter involved in paragraphs Nos. 2, 3, and 4; the unpaid witness fees in the New Oriental Bank case; the unpaid court costs, etc., in the Dr. Jaillet case, and the translation of the Crockett accounts, and finally as to whether the Department considers that I should be put to the expense and labor of correcting, rebinding, etc., such of my predecessor’s records as are not in proper shape, searching for missing vouchers, and refiling and docketing [Page 388] the papers and letters of this office, or whether an account of such expense, etc., should be kept for ultimate recovery from Mr. Waller and his sureties.

I have, etc.,

Edw. Telfair Wetter
.