Mr. White to Mr.
Hay.
American Embassy,
London, December 31,
1902.
No. 1017.]Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a
copy of a note which, upon the receipt of your telegraphic instructions,
I addressed to the Marquis of Lansdowne and handed to him on the 27th
instant.
[Page 464]
The British Government—and I may also say the British public—arc
undoubtedly disappointed at having been unable to secure the advantage
of the President’s services as arbitrator in the questions at issue
between this country and Venezuela, and when I saw Lord Landsdowne on
the 27th he gave expression, as I have telegraphed you, to this
sentiment; but he added that His Majesty’s Government gratefully take
note of the President’s kindness in offering to be of any further
service possible in arranging the preliminaries of the understanding,
and in being willing to welcome the representatives of the powers at
Washington, if they should find it desirable to meet there.
I have again called to-day—being Lord Lansdowne’s weekly reception day at
the foreign office—upon him, but he had nothing further to say in
respect to the Venezuelan question save that he is anxiously awaiting a
reply from the Venezuelan Government to the arbitration proposals and
reservations which you have been good enough to forward.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. White to
Lord Lansdowne.
American Embassy,
London, December 27,
1902.
My Lord: With reference to recent
interviews with your lordship relative to the submission to
arbitration of the questions at issue between Great Britain and
Venezuela, and particularly to the memorandum which you were so good
as to hand me on the 23d instant, I have the honor to inform you
that the President of the United States profoundly appreciates the
courtesy with which the powers in interest have suggested his name
as arbitrator in the matters now pending in Venezuela, and if no
other or no better means of settling the subjects in dispute
presented themselves he would willingly comply with the wishes of
the powers and give his best efforts to an end so laudable. But the
President has thought it most desirable from the beginning 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 nor the cession of territory.
After a thorough consultation with all of the powers concerned,
during which the President has found an honorable spirit of candor
and of mutual consideration animating every one of them, he 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.
The President 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 Washington he
would be happy to welcome them there and to facilitate their labors
in every possible way.
I have, etc.
