Mr. Hay to Mr. Merry.
Washington , January 11, 1902 .
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of 3’our dispatcha No. 608, of August 24, 1901, inclosing a copy and translation of a note from the Government of Salvador contesting the claim of Mrs. Rosa Gelb-trunk against that Government for $22,654.43 for the seizure of merchandise at Sensuntepeque, Salvador, by revolutionary troops in November, 1898.
The Department has given careful consideration to this claim. The revolutionists who made the seizure now constitute the Government of Salvador, which is therefore answerable for the full payment of the indemnity. The Government of Salvador denies liability, while [Page 874] not denying the seizure and appropriation of the property by the military forces of the Republic.
The seizure is proved by the affidavits of a number of eyewitnesses, the evidence of title in the claimant is clear, and the value of the goods taken is shown by the certificate of two appraisers appointed by the court, one representing Gelbtrunk and the other the Salvadorean Government.
Inasmuch as this claim is founded in the tortuous action of the State, the State is answerable for the payment of an indemnity, the amount of which seems to have been fairly established as above stated. The Government of the United States therefore expects the immediate payment of an indemnity in the amount of said claim. The claim is just beyond dispute, and for this reason it is hoped that it will be paid without further delay.
As, however, the Department has accepted the principle of arbitration in the case of the Salvador Commercial Company, it is not unwilling that such principle shall apply also to this case, and that this claim shall be submitted to the same arbitrators as the claim of the Salvador Commercial Company is to be submitted to, provided the agreement to submit is made promptly.
You will, accordingly, propose to the Salvadorean Government that the claim be submitted to arbitration as above suggested.
I am, etc.,
- Not printed.↩