Lord Kimberley to Dr. Barrios.
[Handed to the Secretary of State by the Nicaraguan minister.]
Sir: Her Majesty’s Government have carefully considered the voluminous documents inclosed in your note of the 22d of November last, which you have communicated to me, in justification of the proceedings of the Nicaraguan Government in regard to Mr. Hatch, British proconsul, and certain other British subjects who were arrested in August last in the Mosquito Reserve, imprisoned, and expelled from Nicaragua not only without any form of trial, but without any communication to them of the charges against them, so as to afford them an opportunity of absolving themselves.
Before proceeding to examine the statements made in those documents, I may observe that, although Mr. Hatch was not strictly speaking an officer in Her Majesty’s consular service, it might have been expected that the Nicaraguan authorities in the Reserve, who carried on a correspondence with him and made use of his services in a consular capacity whenever and so long as it suited their convenience to do so, would, as a matter of ordinary courtesy, have communicated with Her Majesty’s Government before resorting to so extreme a measure as the arrest of that gentleman.
The British subjects who were arrested on the 16th of August and taken to Managua were, besides Mr. Hatch, British pro-consul: Mr. W. B. 0. Brown, Mr. H. Brownrigg, Mr. J. W. Cuthbert, Mr. S. A. Hodgson, Mr. John Taylor, Mr. John O. Thomas, Mr. Markland Taylor, and Mr. W. Glover.
On the 23d of August two more British subjects were arrested—Mr. G. P. Hall and Mr. Hubert O. Bodden—-and another British subject, Mr. Joseph P. Moody, was arrested on the 30th of August. There were also further arrests of persons said to be British subjects, viz, Green, Martin, Thompson, and Joel Bodden.
The object of much that is contained in the papers communicated by the Nicaraguan Government appears to be to connect Mr. Hatch and other British subjects arrested with the disturbances which took place on the Mosquito Reserve in July last.
Messrs. Hatch, Brown, Brownrigg, Cuthbert, S. A. Hodgson, John Taylor, Markland Taylor, and Glover, in a statement made on the 7th of September, have sworn that they did not in any way, directly or indirectly, participate in or encourage the riots in the Reserve.
Mr. J. O. Thomas also denies any complicity in the riots.
[Page 1026]As to Mr. G. P. Hall, who was kept in prison for six days and only released on giving an undertaking to leave the country, he states that, as police magistrate, he endeavored to quiet the people on the 5th of July, but was shot at and went home, and resigned the next day. His statement is supported by sworn statements made by two of the police, British subjects.
Mr. Hubert O. Bodden, who was kept in prison three days and was released on the intervention of the captain of the U. S. S. Marblehead, but was exiled, is in ignorance of the causes of his arrest and exile.
Mr. J. P. Moody states that he is in ignorance of the causes of his arrest and banishment.
Amongst the depositions which are brought forward by the Nicaraguan Government as proofs against Mr. Hatch are those of J. W. Cuthbert, S. A. Hodgson, and Charles Patterson, when under detention. The first-named person is represented to have deposed that it was Mr. Hatch who encouraged the movement against the Nicaraguan authorities, and that he was always in the midst of the insurgents. S. A. Hodgson is represented to have stated that the meetings of the Mosquito council from the 5th to the 7th of July were held in the house of Mr. Hatch, and that he was present at them then and afterwards when they were held elsewhere. Charles Patterson is represented to have affirmed that Mr. Hatch was nearly always present at the meetings of the council and advised them what to do.
Now, two of these deponents, Messrs. Cuthbert and Patterson, in a statement made to Consul Bingham, while swearing that they did not in any way participate in or encourage the riot of the 5th of July and did not furnish or import arms or ammunition for use in the disturbances, further say that certain questions were asked us at the bluff by the minister of war, and written in Spanish, which was signed by us, but we can not say that it is correct, not knowing the language, but compelled to sign.”
The third deponent, S. A. Hodgson, in a sworn statement made on the 17th of September, affirms that, while under arrest at Bluefields Bluff, he stated, in reply to questions by General Portocarrero respecting Mr. Hatch, that Mr. Hatch did not to his knowledge have a gathering of people at his business-house door on the 6th of July, that he did not instigate or advise the Jamaicans to take up arms, but that he warned them not to do so, and posted up notices to the same effect; that the Chief Clarence, after he was reinstated, did not reside at Mr. Hatch’s house, but at that of Mr. Forbes; that no meeting of the council was held at Mr. Hatch’s house, and that, except beseeching the people to keep quiet, Mr. Hatch had nothing to do with the affairs of the 5th and 6th of July; that he (Hodgson) was asked to sign the statement, but requested to have it read to him in English, which was refused, and after waiting an hour he was compelled to sign it.
Hubert O. Bodden, who is another of the deponents quoted in the documents communicated by the Nicaraguan Government, states in a sworn statement that he was arrested on the 23d of August, and asked questions tending to implicate Mr. Hatch and others in the disturbances; that on his pleading ignorance the judge said he was lying, and that “if you do not speak the truth you shall be shot;” that he was then sent back to prison, where he remained three days, when he was released on the intervention of the captain of the U. S. S. Marblehead, the judge informing him that he was exiled, but that he ought to be shot.
With regard to the other depositions produced by the Nicaraguan Government, the evidence as to Mr. Hatch’s conduct at the time of the [Page 1027] disturbances is mere hearsay, and is not only in contradiction to the sworn statements to which I have just referred, but is at variance with the information obtained by Her Majesty’s Government through the British naval officers on the spot.
I notice from the depositions which you have communicated to me that Green, Martin, and Thompson are stated to have been concerned in the police riot on the 5th of July, and that Joel Bodden is said to have taken part in the attack on the bluff on the following day. Her Majesty’s Government are not fully informed as to how their cases have been dealt with by the Nicaraguan Government, and they are therefore excluded from consideration in my present note.
As to the other British subjects arrested, I may observe that, after the police riots of the 5th of July and the attack on the palace that night, the town of Bluefields was without organized government, until the Mosquito chief, at the request of the merchants and others, issued a proclamation that he has resumed his former position.
The Nicaraguan commissioner was within the palace with some thirty soldiers, and was without power to maintain either order or the authority of Nicaragua, which he had up to then exercised, and he took the first opportunity of coming to an arrangement to withdraw his soldiers to a place of safety.
In these circumstances certain British subjects, at the request of the Mosquito chief, reassumed the functions which they had formerly exercised before the entrance of the Nicaraguan troops into the Mosquito Reserve in February.
If a government of some sort had not been constituted after the riots of the 5th and 6th of July, a state of anarchy would undoubtedly have ensued, and Her Majesty’s Government can not blame those British subjects who cooperated with the Mosquito chief in the maintenance of order.
With regard to the conduct of Mr. Hatch, Her Majesty’s Government are satisfied, from the reports of Her Majesty’s naval officers, that it was perfectly correct during the time that he acted as British proconsul.
General Gabezas, in his report to the Nicaraguan Government, finds fault with certain notices issued by Mr. Hatch, which he describes as “the grossest mockery of truth and Nicaragua.”
These notices appear to Her Majesty’s Government to have been very proper in the circumstances. That of the 6th of July was as follows:
I warn all British subjects to abstain from and not to interfere with any of the local troubles or questions now pending between Mosquito and the sovereign power, and to be law-abiding citizens.
The notice of the 19th of July was in the following words:
I have been directed by Her Britannic Majesty’s minister at Guatemala to warn British subjects in Mosquito that rebellion will be treated with severity by the Government of Nicaragua.
General Oabezas further makes it a grievance against Mr. Hatch that he wrote a letter to Mr. Brownrigg, in which he tried to induce the latter to accept the appointment of a member of the council which the Mosquito chief had offered him. Mr. Hatch’s letter, which was dated the 13th of July, when there existed no Nicaraguan authority at Bluefields, merely stated:
In answer to your request as to your right to assist in the executive council of the Mosquito Reserve, I see or know no cause to prevent your doing so. The only wish of the inhabitants is to maintain peace, and by your acceptance you assist in doing so. It can not deprive you of your right to English protection.
General Cabezas alleges that Mr. Hatch harbored the Chief Clarence for purposes hostile to Nicaragua. On this I have only to remark that the chief, being in fear for his life, was, by the advice of Captain Clarke, commanding H. M. S. Magicienne, received by Mr. Hatch in his house, on the 11th of May, but that when the chief reassumed his position as Mosquito chief on the 6th of July, Mr. Hatch requested him to cease to reside in his house, and he accordingly left it.
I do not know that there are any other points in the documents which you have communicated to me of sufficient importance to make it necessary that I should specially notice them. I have only to request that you will, without delay, inform the Nicaraguan Government that Her Majesty’s Government can not admit that any adequate or reliable evidence has been produced to justify the arbitrary and violent action taken against the Queen’s subjects.
They hold the Nicaraguan Government responsible for these proceedings, and they must require them to pay the sum of £15,000 on account of their action in arresting, imprisoning, and expelling those British subjects; further, to cancel unconditionally the decrees of exile issued against them, and to agree to the constitution of a commission to assess the losses sustained by them in their property or goods in the Reserve, owing to the action of the Nicaraguan authorities. Such commission to be composed of a British representative, a Nicaraguan representative, and a jurist not a citizen of any American state, to be selected by agreement between the Nicaraguan Government and the Government of Her Majesty, and failing such agreement, by the President of the Swiss Republic. The findings of the commission to be by a majority, and the awards to be final, and to be paid within three months of the conclusion of their labors. Besides the cases of British subjects arrested in the Mosquito Reserve to which I have referred, there are those of others who have suffered at the hands of the Nicaraguan authorities, namely, Arthur E. Sykes, of Sheffield, England, who had been working for a year in the Mosquito Reserve as an engineer, and was serving in that capacity on board the tug Buena Ventura, when, on the night of the 30th of July, he was forced at the point of a bayonet, by Nicaraguan soldiers, to get up steam and take a party of them down the river to the Bluefields Bluff, and was on arrival there fortunately released by the captain of the U. S. S. Marblehead.
Mr. Joshua E. Gayle, a Jamaican, settled in Great Corn Island, who early in the year 1894 was beaten with the flat of a sword for refusing to perform military service, and then made to serve.
There is further the unwarrantable seizure of the British schooner Angelia by the governor of Corn Island, and the detention of her owner and crew.
For these outrages Her Majesty’s Government must also have satisfaction, and they require that the sum of £500 be paid as indemnity.
In previous letter which I have addressed to you, I have explained that Her Majesty’s Government are not prepared to discuss any questions with regard to the treaty of Managua and the recent proceedings in the Mosquito Reserve until this matter of the arrest and imprisonment of British subjects had been disposed of. In order to avoid any misunderstanding on the subject, I think it right to inform you that to this determination Her Majesty’s Government intend to adhere; but so soon as the demands which I have made in my present note have been satisfied, I shall be prepared to receive and consider in a friendly spirit any representations on those questions which the Nicaraguan Government may desire to make to Her Majesty’s Government.