Mr. Powell to Mr. Sherman.

No. 85.]

Sir: I have the honor to state in answer to dispatch No. 49, dated November 2, 1897, that in accordance with instruction received by last mail—dispatch No. 34, dated October 11, 1897—I addressed to the secretary of state, the Hon. Solon Menos, a protest against the payment of the license tax imposed by the Government upon Ch. Weymann & Co., for the clerks in his employ, a copy of which I forwarded to the Department by last mail.

I see from instruction received in dispatch No. 49, that I have erred in sending such protest, as the clerks for whom the firm has paid this license are not Americans. The members of this firm are all Americans, and by the law pay this tax that is required of their clerks to the Government. The Department can see that in referring to Department’s dispatch No. 34, dated October 11, 1897, after referring to the action taken by former Secretaries of State, occurs the following: You will acquaint the Haitian Government with the views of this Government, and if any attempt is made to enforce the law against citizens of the United States, you will protest in the name of your Government and report the facts to the Department.”

In dispatch No. 49, November 2, 1897, the Department defines in what cases a protest shall be entered, the proof necessary to be taken, such proof to be under oath or affirmation of the party so making it, as to his nationality or citizenship, all of which is to be submitted to the Department before the same can be “considered an international reclamation,” before a protest shall issue from this legation. In dispatch No. 34 my instructions are not thus defined, but are made mandatory, as can be seen by referring to the concluding sentence of that dispatch. I am thus placed in a dilemma. If I withdraw this protest, I shall weaken all future claims that may be made by me to the Government of this Republic. If I do not withdraw, in the face of these instructions conveyed in dispatch No. 49, I am clearly disobeying the orders of the Department.

I have, etc.,

W. F. Powell.