Mr. Romero to Mr. Olney.
Washington, January 30, 1897.
Mr. Secretary: I have had the honor to receive your note of yesterday, No. 207, whereby you were pleased to transmit to me the new draft of a protocol for the submission to arbitration of the claim of Charles Oberlander, said draft having been prepared after you had considered the observations which I made relative to that which you sent me as an inclosure to your note, No. 204, of the 26th instant in my reply of the 27th.
Referring to the claim of Mrs. Barbara M. Messenger, I must inform you that as this case has not been discussed by this legation with the Department of State, but by the United States legation in Mexico with the department of foreign relations of the Mexican Government, I am not thoroughly familiar with all its details, and I was under the impression that the Department of State had decided not to push Mrs. Messenger’s claim. On examination of the case I find that Mr. E. C. Butler, chargé d’affaires of the United States in Mexico, wrote, in a communication which he addressed to Mr. Mariscal April 9, 1895, as follows:
The Department is disposed to admit the correctness of the view taken by the Mexican Government that Mrs. Messenger’s illness was brought on, not so much by the forcible entrance of her house as by her own conduct in pursuing the kidnaping party, and that she is therefore probably not entitled to the large damages claimed by her.
This circumstance left me under the impression that the Department of State had decided to drop Mrs. Messenger’s claim. This, however, not being the case, I do not object to its being included in the pending protocol.
I am very glad of the acceptance of the other modifications proposed by me, both in my note of the 27th instant and in the interview which I had with you on the 28th instant at the Department of State, and I therefore only have to suggest that the official name of Mexico is the “United States of Mexico” (literally United Mexican States), and not the “Republic of the United States of Mexico,” as it appears in the preamble of your draft, and to propose, in pursuance of the instructions of my Government, another modification which, if accepted by you, as I trust it will be, will permit me to sign the protocol. This modification is the extension to three months of the term of two months which is fixed in Article II for the submission to the arbitrator by each Government of the copies of the correspondence, documents, and evidence which it is to lay before him, so that my Government may have more time to prepare those copies and its argument.
In your note No. 204 you were pleased to refer to the desirability, after the signing of the protocol, of each Government apprising the Argentine minister at Madrid of its wish that he should act as arbitrator in the case. As I think it preferable to sign the protocol after ascertaining that Mr. Quesada is willing to accept the trust which it is designed to repose in him, I shall communicate with the Government of Mexico by cable requesting it to instruct the legation of Mexico at Madrid to inquire of Mr. Quesada whether he is willing to accept that trust, if you think this step preferable, and will make a similar inquiry of Mr. Quesada; then, in case of his acceptance, we will proceed at once to sign the protocol. If you prefer that we should sign it before [Page 376] addressing Mr. Quesada, I will do so on receiving notice from you to that effect.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,