Office of the Historian

Mr. Sherman to Mr. Barrett.

Department of State,
Washington, May 5, 1897.
No. 111.]

Sir: Acknowledging the receipt of your dispatches Nos. 171 and 176, dated, respectively, February 18 and March 2, 1897, reporting that you have practically closed the terms of arbitration of the Cheek case, I confirm my cablegram to you of yesterday’s date as follows:

Numbers 171 and 176 received. Suggestions approved. Model of agreement mailed.

It appears from your reports that the instructions of the Department have been complied with, and that the terms of agreement are satisfactory. I inclose copy of a protocol or agreement between the United States and Mexico, signed March 2, 1897, for the settlement of a claim, which will serve as a guide to you in framing the agreement for the arbitration of this matter between the Siamese Government and Cheek. The previous correspondence so fully covers the case that there is no occasion to give you special directions. The three essentials are:

(1)
That every matter in dispute between the two parties shall be included, both facts and law.
(2)
That in case an award is made in favor of Siam it shall be against the Cheek estate only and not against the United States.
(3)
That the two Governments shall divide equally between them the common items of expense attending the hearing of the case by the arbitrator.

Sir Nicholas J. Hannen, British chief justice and consul-general at Shanghai, China, is perfectly satisfactory to this Government as the arbitrator, and there is no objection to his sitting in Siam.

You have in your office duplicates of all the papers concerning the case which are on file here, and this relieves the Department from sending you copies of the documents here. If you need any, however, cable for them and they will be sent immediately.

You will notice that in the Mexican case, the protocol of which is inclosed, the two parties have contented themselves with submitting to the arbitrator the documents and correspondence which have already passed between them with such additional arguments as each may choose to make. I am not sufficiently well acquainted with the conditions to advise you to follow this precedent in that respect. It may be that valuable evidence is attainable by you which has not already been submitted. If so, it would be well to make the agreement broad enough to admit such evidence. If, on the other hand, the papers which have already been presented contain all there is in favor of Cheek’s case, the agreement may be framed accordingly. The Department refrains from hampering you with specific instructions which may do more harm than good.

Trusting that your intelligence and perfect familiarity with the case will enable you to make a proper agreement, you are hereby authorized to draw up and sign the same as representative for the United States in this matter, but before the agreement becomes operative, a copy of it must be sent here for approval. If approved, you will be notified by cable. In the meantime you may be preparing the case for submission to the arbitrator, and on receipt of notice that the agreement to arbitrate is satisfactory to both Governments the arbitrator may proceed with the case.

Respectfully, yours,

John Sherman.