Legation of the United States,
Port au Prince
,
December 28,
1894
. (Received Jan. 10.)
No. 108.]
You will observe that the foreign office holds to the views heretofore
expressed, notwithstanding my strong reiteration of the position of my
Government in this behalf, and affects to consider the incident closed.
In this dilemma I ask further instructions from the Department. I will,
however, in a few days respond to this dispatch, repeating the tenor of
my instructions and suggesting that the question of morality can hardly
be considered in a matter involving treaty obligations.
[Inclosure in No.
108.—Translation.]
Mr. Marcelin to
Mr. Smythe.
Department of State of Foreign Relations,
Port an Prince
,
December —, 1894.
Mr. Minster: I have the honor to reply to
the dispatch dated the 15th of this month, by which you request my
Government to furnish your legation with proof of the acts which
have caused the expulsion of Mr. Eugene Wiener, acts which he
naturally denies.
I thought that my preceding dispatch would fully inform you of the
opinion of my Government on the subject.
You will kindly permit me to remind you, Mr. Minster, that a
sovereign State can not be held, before the expulsion from its
territory of an individual whose presence it judges to be dangerous,
to furnish the interested legation with the proofs and the police
reports made against him.
These documents, you will easily understand, constitute a part of the
archives of State and can not be communicated. It seems to me,
moreover, conformable to the rules of international law that such a
manner of acting would tend to nothing less than to submit in
circumstances of such nature the decision of the Government to the
approbation of a diplomatic representative accredited near to
it.
Neither does it appear to me to be admissible that the statesmen who
govern with such equity the Republic of the United States could
contest these principles, especially to the benefit of persons whose
morality leaves something to be desired.
[Page 807]
I have the hope, Mr. Minster, that this incident will be closed
henceforth between your legation and the department in view of the
information which I have had the honor to furnish to you, and I
renew, etc.,
F. Marcelin,
Secretary of State ad interim of Foreign
Relations.