Mr. Storer to Mr. Hay.
Madrid, December 21, 1901.
Sir: I have the honor, in furtherance of the subject of my dispatch No. 590, bearing date December 14, 1901, to report that I have just received, through the minister of state, the official answer of the Spanish Government to our request for aid in obtaining evidence in the hearing of claims before the Spanish Claims Commission, established pursuant to the treaty of Paris.
I beg to inclose a copy and a translation of the same.
In view both of the importance that there should be no misunderstanding in this matter, and also of the fact that I am temporarily incapacitated from personally examining the scope of the technically legal phrases in Spanish employed by the Spanish Government, I venture—perhaps needlessly—to request the close attention of the Department to the language of this answer, and also to the translation. I am not confident that the translation is at the same time absolutely accurate and absolutely clear under our own system of the law involving “res adjudicata.”
It will be seen that in response to my request that the Spanish Government should point out any detail which would render of more practical efficacy the course of procedure desired, it is suggested that each case transmitted to the Spanish Government be accompanied by a memorandum of questions or interrogatory, specifying exactly the points upon which information is desired.
It will also be seen that the conditions precedent, asked by the Spanish Government, are: First, that the language of the petition and other papers submitted through this legation shall not be disrespectful to Spain, nor reflecting unduly upon the Spanish administration; and, second, that this information thus furnished shall not be made the subject of debate, and so far as it consists of decisions of the Spanish Government upon the conduct of its own officers it shall be conclusive.
I desire, in restating their position, to carry the general verbal understanding that the minister of state and myself came to, prior to [Page 480] the time when I officially transmitted the request, as perhaps making clearer the intent of the language used by the Spanish Government in now officially formulating its conditional compliance.
The minister of state, who, I believe, is not technically a lawyer, had given me the idea that all that was desired was that whatever was any judicial decree, or to use his own words “choses jugées,” should be respected; and I explained to him that under our system of jurisprudence there would be no premeditated disturbance of any judicial decision arrived at by any Spanish court having jurisdiction. This, I understand, met his own views.
I again venture to commend the close attention of the Department to the scope of this part of the Spanish letter, as it may be intended to include Spanish departmental rulings, etc., together with the decisions of competent tribunals.
I have, etc.,