Mr. Olney to Mr. Barrett.
Washington, October 15, 1896.
Sir: Your dispatch, No. 137, of August 19, 1896, in relation to the claim of Dr. M. A. Cheek against the Siamese Government, has been received.
In this and in previous dispatches the Government of Siam has expressed a desire to have the matter of this claim submitted to arbitration, on condition that the Siamese counterclaim against the estate of Dr. Cheek shall be included in the submission and considered by the arbitrator. The Siamese claim against Cheek is supposed to relate to an unpaid balance of Cheek’s indebtedness to that Government, which was not liquidated by the appropriation of Cheek’s property under royal order in 1892 and 1893, which act of appropriation is the subject-matter of Cheek’s complaint.
Dr. Cheek made his claim for damages against the Siamese Government subject to deduction of the amount which he—or his estate, now that he is dead—owes that Government. The proposition of Siam is therefore assumed to be that in case the arbitrator shall find that Cheek’s indebtedness to Siam exceeds the amount of damages awarded him in consequence of the injurious action of the Siamese Government, the arbitrator shall have authority to make an award against Dr. Cheek’s estate in favor of the Siamese Government for the amount of such excess.
[Page 468]You are instructed to ascertain from the Siamese minister of foreign affairs and to report at once whether the suggestion of the Siamese Government is rightly understood in the sense above explained.
I am, etc.,