Mr. Hay to Mr. White.
Washington, December 26, 1902.
(Mr. Hay states that the President appreciates profoundly the courtesy with which the powers in interest have suggested his name as arbitrator in the matters now pending in Venezuela. If no other or better means of settling the subjects in dispute presented themselves the President would willingly comply with the wishes of the powers and give his best efforts to an end so laudable; but he has thought from the beginning that it was most desirable that the entire controversy should be submitted to the judgment of that high tribunal at The Hague which has been created by the principal powers of the world for the consideration of precisely such causes, involving, as the present controversy does, no question of national honor or the cession of territory. After a thorough consultation with all the powers, in which he has found an honorable spirit of candor and mutual consideration animating every one of them, the President has been greatly gratified to learn that in the event of his not undertaking the important duty to which the powers have invited him they would all be willing to accept a reference to The Hague. He has therefore the greatest pleasure in announcing to the Governments of Great Britain, Germany, Italy, and Venezuela that all of them have accepted in principle the proposition of a reference of pending questions to the tribunal of The Hague.
If the President can be of any further service in arranging the preliminaries of such an understanding he will gladly hold himself at the disposition of the powers concerned, and if their representatives should find it desirable to meet in Washingtion he would be happy to welcome them there and to facilitate their labors in every possible way.)