Mr. Williams to Mr.
Uhl.
United
States Consulate-General,
Habana
,
April 26, 1895
.
(Received April 30.)
No. 2491.]
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that in
compliance with the telegram of the honorable Secretary of State of the
16th instant, I addressed a communication yesterday to his excellency
the general in charge of the Captaincy-General, asking for the transfer
of Mr. Julio [Page 760] Sanguily on the
second charge from the military to the civil jurisdiction for trial, in
accordance with the requirements of the agreement of the 12th of
January, 1877, and entering at the same time the formal protest of the
Government of the United States before the government of this island
against any further delay in his transfer to the civil jurisdiction;
protesting alike against all the proceedings hitherto practiced or that
may hereafter be practiced by the court martial now trying him, because
they are in clear contradiction of the said agreement between the two
nations.
I am, etc.,
Ramon O. Williams,
Consul-General.
[Inclosure 1 in No.
2491.]
Mr. Williams to
the Captain-General of
Cuba.
United States Consulate-General,
Habana
,
April 25, 1895.
Excellency: Notwithstanding the decree
issued on the 16th of March last by his excellency the
Governor-General of this island, inhibiting the military
jurisdiction of the cognizance of the cause of the American citizen,
Mr. Julio Sanguily, and ordering its transfer to a court of the
civil jurisdiction in strict observance of the agreement of the 12th
of January, 1877, nevertheless I am informed by his advocate that he
has again been subjected to a court-martial, by order of the
military jurisdiction; this time on a charge alleged to be related
to the kidnaping last year of Mr. Fernandez de Castro, and in
consequence this American citizen has been again remanded into
solitary confinement and deprived of all intercourse with his
counsel by order of the court-martial.
This proceeding on the part of the military jurisdiction is not only
an infraction of the agreement, but it is likewise in contradiction
of the said decree of the 16th of March last, of his excellency the
Governor-General of this island.
I have therefore, and in compliance with the instructions of my
Government, to ask your excellency to have the goodness to order
that this second case against this American citizen be also
transferred to the civil jurisdiction for trial as his excellency
the Governor-General was pleased to order in the first case; and
also by order of my Government to enter its most formal protest
before the government of this island against any delay in the
transferring of this second cause against Sanguily to the civil
jurisdiction: as likewise to protest against all proceedings
hitherto practiced in this case or that may hereafter be practiced
in this case by the court-martial now trying this American citizen,
because they are in clear contradiction of the said agreement
between the two nations.
I have, etc.,
Ramon O. Williams,
Consul-General.
