Mr. Olney to Mr.
Eustis.
Department of State,
Washington, May 28,
1896.
No. 676.]
Sir: I inclose for your information copy of a
dispatch No. 139, of the 31st of March last, from the consul of the
United States at Tamatave in regard to affairs in Madagascar.
You will observe that the French resident-general, in his note of the
13th of March last to Mr. Wetter, states, in effect, that France having
taken possession of the island, it follows from this fact that
foreigners and French citizens are alike amenable to the regular French
tribunals, and that France has taken definite and entire possession of
Madagascar.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 676.]
Mr. Wetter to
Mr. Uhl.
Consulate of the United States,
Tamatave, March 31, 1896. (Received May
8.)
No. 139.]
Sir: I have the honor in continuation of my
dispatch No. 133 of February 20, 1896, to hand you such further
correspondence as has occurred between myself and Mr. Laroche.
Mr. Laroche’s letter (inclosure No. 1) needs no commentary. My reply
thereto (inclosure No. 2) takes up the Martin matter reported in my
dispatch No. 137 of March 18, 1896.
I have been positively informed that it is the town talk of
Antananarivo, as well as here in Tamatave, that the discontinuance
of issuing licenses, as reported in my No. 135 of March 17, was
because of the raising of this jurisdiction question by the United
States and British consulates.
[Page 128]
These licenses are now issued to Frenchmen
only. Already the acting British consul’s premature announcement is
bearing fruit. Per last English mail thirteen American and British
miners reached this place and Vatomandry. Eight of these men were
United States citizens from Matabeleland. Fortunately, these men
have means enough for their subsistence for a year or two and have
entered the country in the usual way. Should, however, any
hairbrained attempts be made to come into the country on the west
and southwest coast we will have a second edition of the Dawson
fiasco of 1893, when eighty white men were landed by sailing ship on
the west coast, whereof but seventeen lived to reach Antananarivo
and but thirteen of these to reembark at Tamatave five months
afterwards for the Transvaal again, starvation and fever doing the
damage.
I am sir, etc.,
Edw. Telfair Wetter,
United States Consul.
[Subinclosure 1 in No.
676.—Translation.]
Mr. Laroche to
Mr. Wetter.
Office of the Resident-General of
Madagascar,
Antananarivo, March 13,
1896.
Mr. Consul: I have had the honor of seeing
you on my passage at Tamatave, and of commencing with you relations
which I can not doubt will be always marked not only by courtesy but
by sincere sympathy.
If I have omitted to notify you officially and by special letter of
my assuming possession of the residency-general of Madagascar, rest
assured that that omission has had nothing intentional in it.
France has taken possession of the Island, and from this fact it
follows, naturally, that the foreign subjects and the French
subjects therein will be amenable henceforth to our regular
tribunals. Therefore, you would think without doubt, in consequence
of this change of situation it was the duty of my Government to make
it known to yours.
The letter of Mr. the Resident at Tamatave, announcing to you the
approaching arrival of the French judges, can not take the place of
this communication. I could not consider myself more qualified.
These are communications (to be made) between Paris and Washington,
and I acknowledge with you that from Washington solely, and not from
Antananarivo, could you receive information upon the modifications
which your mission to Madagascar doth assume.
Be that as it may, since you show the desire to be informed thereof
by the residency-general itself, I hasten to confirm to you that
which public rumor has already given out to be known, that France
has taken definitive and entire possession of this country.
I repeat again, Mr. Consul, that I shall have great pleasure in
continuing with you the good relations commenced in the month of
January, and which both my sentiments of venerable and profound
sympathy for the United States, which you represent, and the
sentiments of high consideration which I have for your person, and
whereof I renew to you here the expression, will render altogether
easy.
Will you accept, etc.,
Hippolyte Laroche,
The Resident-General.
[Subinclosure 2 in No.
676.]
Mr. Wetter to
Mr. Laroche.
Consulate of the United States,
Tamatave, March 20, 1896.
Sir: I have the honor to own the receipt of
your communication dated March 13, 1896, and would assure you that
the feelings of good will and courtesy therein voiced are not only
fully appreciated by myself, but that they are more than cordially
and sincerely reciprocated.
There was no need, sir, to assure this consulate that the omission
alluded to in the second paragraph of your letter was unintentional
on your part, as it was already
[Page 129]
satisfied that such must have been the case,
and had attributed same solely to the pressure of local business and
the tension and confusion incident to a new incumbency. The
expression in my letter to which your said paragraph was in response
was not intended on my part as a reminder of such omission, but
solely as a premise to the opening of an official correspondence
between yourself and this consulate.
I am sincerely pleased to note that you are in accord with this
consulate in the essential features of its position relative to this
matter of “present jurisdiction,” and would again express the hope
that you may find it compatible with your sense of duty to your own
Government to cooperate with me in avoiding all controversial
friction by leaving this question of present jurisdiction on your
part in abeyance until such time as our Governments may have decided
same and this consulate shall have been accorded appropriate
instructions from Washington. In this connection I can inform you
that as yet, although my last advices are dated February 7, no such
instructions have been received.
In conclusion I regret to state that rumors have recently reached me
about a matter of recent occurrence in Antananarivo, which more or
less bears, if said reports are correctly founded, upon this very
question of jurisdiction. In the very unsatisfactory form in which
these rumors reach me I much prefer to leave all discussion or
comment thereon until such time as same shall have been reduced to
legal details and facts. To enable this consulate, therefore, to
arrive at a correct conclusion as to whether the matter calls for
its official intervention or attention or not, I would request that
you courteously favor me with a detailed statement as to the trial
or trials of a certain American citizen, William Beal Martin, in
February last, before your civil or military tribunals, as the case
may have been, for an offense alleged to have been committed against
another American citizen in Antananarivo; likewise of a certain
judgment or judgments rendered against him in that case, as also in
a civil matter between said Martin and another American citizen
named Owen.
Renewing to you, etc.,
Edw. Telfair Wetter,
United States Consul.
