Mr. Bayard to Mr. Phelps.
Washington, April 13, 1885.
Sir: I have received a letter from Mr. C. G. Lee, of 503½ D street, Washington, D. C., calling attention to the claim of the members of the late Hydrographic Commission of the Amazon against Peru. The history of the case may be found by reference to instructions of the Department of October 31, 1877, December 17, 1877, and April 28, 1879; as also to dispatches from Lima of April 27 and July 24, 1878, of January 22, 1879, and July 23, 1879.
You will see by instruction No. 84, of October 31, 1877, on what grounds the claims of Mr. Sparrow and Mr. Noland were committed to the care of the legation. The claim of Mr. Francis E. Gait, of Upperville, Va., alluded to in No. 8, addressed to Mr. Christiancy on April 28, 1879, is understood to be of the same character.
You will see by that instruction that the order of the Peruvian Government to Messrs. Hobson, Hurtado & Co., reported in No. 300 of Mr. Gibbs, was not carried out, and, as they said, for want of funds. Mr. Lee now states that the claims are still unpaid.
The failure of Peru to furnish the funds required for the liquidation of the claims was perhaps due to the conditions of the late war, while the attitude of the claimants meantime, who refrained from pressing the claims, has certainly been commendable.
It is true, as observed in No. 84 of the 31st of October, 1877, that the claims arise out of contract, but, nevertheless, contracts made by these gentlemen with the Government of Peru, which that Government has recognized and ordered payment on account of.
I have submitted the correspondence in the case to the law officer of these Department, whose comments on the diplomatic sanction afforded the claims and the singular hardship which their nonpayment involves, I concur in. You will therefore use the good offices of the legation to obtain that fair and just settlement which is no less due to the character of Peru as a law-abiding and high-spirited state than it is to these considerate claimants.
I am, etc.,