Mr. Hay to Mr. Day.
London, June 7, 1898.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your cabled instruction of yesterday in regard to the Manila and Hongkong cable, and to inclose copies of it, as well as of my reply of this date.
In obedience to your instruction, I had an interview to-day with the Marquis of Tweeddale, the chairman of the company operating the above-mentioned cable. He could see no means of complying with our desire to send dispatches from Manila to Hongkong, in face of the [Page 978] formal prohibition of the Spanish Government, without the risk of forfeiting their concession. He said he had already asked permission to take the telegrams of both sides, but that this had been refused. He concluded by saying that the direction of the company could not be justified in endangering the interests of their shareholders by defying the orders of the Spanish authorities, unless they were secured by a formal guaranty of the United States against all losses which might thereby result, including those arising from a forfeiture of their concession.
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I have, etc.,