The Belgian Minister to the Secretary of State.
Washington, May 27, 1905.
The German firms of Baer, sr., and E. Weber, and the Belgian firm of El Oriente filed five years ago with the United States Government a request for the refunding of some very important sums of money, which after having been seized upon by the Philippine insurgents were afterwards retaken by the American troops.
According to a report which the Belgian minister heard, the War Department, after ordering an inquiry into the case by a commission in the Philippine Islands, refused to take a final decision itself and sent the matter over to the State Department for a final award.
Baron Moncheur begs to recommend this case to the kind attention of Judge Penfield.
He mentions especially:
- (a)
- The argument which M. Guislain, Belgian consul-general at Manila, addressed to Governor-General Wright, January 28, 1904.
- (b)
- The letter from the same consul-general to Governor-General Wright, November 4, 1904, and in which he makes sundry observations on the report of the committee appointed to make a further inquiry into the Saturnus case.
Copies of these documents have been handed by Baron Moncheur to Judge Magoon and must accordingly be inclosed in the brief.