Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1902

Mr. Hay to Mr. Powell.

Department of State,
Washington, November 21, 1902.

No. 550.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Terres’s No. 1196, of the 5th instant, reporting concerning the demand made by General Nord for the surrender of refugees by the United States consular agency at Gonaives, Mr. Terres’s instruction to the latter officer to refuse, and his conference with the Provisional President on the subject.

Mr. Terres’s statement to the President appears to have lacked the necessary qualification.

This Government could rightly object to the taking of political refugees from one of its consulates by force, but it could not shelter fugitives from the orderly processes of the courts when charged with common crimes not political in their nature.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.