File No. 174/1–3.

The Secretary of State to the French Ambassador.

No. 390.]

Excellency: Referring to your note of the 18th of May, 1906, and the department’s reply thereto, I have the honor to say that the department has just received the additional report of the War Department upon the claims of Laurent and Joseph Lambert, together with the report and opinion of the Judge-Advocate-General of the Army, a copy of which is inclosed herewith.

The facts are set forth in considerable detail. The authorities of the War Department, as will be seen, have not been able to satisfy themselves that the losses which the claimants sustained were caused by American troops, but even if such were the case, the Judge-Advocate-General of the Army is of the opinion that the acts could only be considered as those of soldiers in their personal capacity, to which no responsibility attaches on the part of their Government.

Accept, etc.,

Elihu Root.
[Inclosure.]

File No. 174/4.

Report and Opinion of the Judge-Advocate-General.

Respectfully returned to the Adjutant-General.

The honorable the Acting Secretary of State incloses to the honorable the Secretary of War certain papers relating to the claim of Messrs. Laurent and Joseph Lambert for compensation for damage done to their property situated in the neighborhood of Santiago de Cuba, by the American Army, and asks that in view of the papers submitted a further investigation of the case be had.

The claimants would appear to be French citizens, and the papers in the case are transmitted to the Department of State by the French ambassador.

The papers undertake to show, in the form of affidavits, the following facts:

The claimants owned a “finca “(country estate) on which was situated a house with a French tile roof, another with a tin roof, and a third with a thatch roof. About the end of July, 1898, American troops pitched their tents on the “finca,” and the buildings were observed to be gradually demolished and gutted and finally to have disappeared.

Upon the destruction of the property the owners, now the claimants, advised the French consul at Santiago and requested him to file a claim with the American authorities. This led to the claimants being summoned to appear before a board of officers on April 15, 1899. On their appearing before the board, Lieut. George R. Armstrong, Fifth Infantry, was delegated to investigate on the spot, and was accompanied by the claimants to the estate, where Lieutenant Armstrong was enabled to verify the facts on which this claim rests.

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His excellency the French ambassador states in his letter to the honorable the Secretary of State that the above data are submitted in answer to the request made by the Department of State on May 25, 1905, that additional evidence in the case be furnished. It will be observed that what has been furnished is not evidence bearing on the facts to be determined. It will probably not be denied that the claimants were the owners of the “finca” San Pedro; that there were three houses on the estate of a total value of $1,750; and that the claimants advanced a claim for compensation due to the alleged desruction of the property.

In an earlier report made on this case by the office of The Military Secretary, it appears to have been said that the report of the board of officers showed that the claimants were repeatedly cited to appear before the board and prosecute their claim, but failed to do so.

The present presentation of this case has been referred to various officers who might be supposed to have a knowledge of the facts, with the following results:

Lieut. George R. Armstrong states that he was directed to get some data for a board of claims; that he obtained the data and made report to the local adjutant-general, but not to the board, as the latter never reconvened. He further states in detail that in May, 1900, he made an official examination of the San Pedro estate, accompanied by disinterested persons, with a view to furnishing testimony to a board of claims of which Maj. George K. McGunnegle was president. Yellow fever prevented a reconvening of the board and the testimony of Lieutenant Armstrong was never taken. A report was made to the adjutant-general (at Santiago), but Lieutenant Armstrong was directed to retain it with a view to presenting it to the board of claims. The facts, as ascertained by Lieutenant Armstrong, were in substance as follows:

The claimants owned two houses and an outhouse, of which they filed an inventory with the French consul in 1895, placing a valuation of $1,750 upon them. The claim for the loss of the said houses made to the military authorities at Santiago amounted to $2,000. An examination of the site showed but little left of the houses, even the French tiling of the roof being gone. There was nothing to show that American troops had destroyed the property. None of the witnesses knew just what troops had been camped on the estate; inquiry from other sources, however, would appear to show that certain troops of General Chaffee’s brigade (the Seventeenth Infantry) had been encamped there.

Lieutenant Armstrong caused the property to be valued by “safe, reputable citizens,” who were well acquainted with its character and construction, and the valuation so obtained ranged from $700 to $1,400. Members of the board of claims were individually of the opinion that the loss sustained by the Messrs. Laurent & Lambert amounted to $900, but that there was insufficient evidence to attach the blame for the loss to American troops. Lieutenant Armstrong further traverses the statements of the claimants in so far as they concern himself, in regard to the summons of April 15, 1899, of which he knew nothing, as to his finding the facts as alleged or being accompanied to San Pedro by one of the claimants.

It has been impossible to locate Mr. Louis A. Sholars, late first lieutenant Company A, Second U. S. Volunteers, who is believed to be the person who is alleged to have signed the summons of April 15, 1899.

Col. George K. McGunnegle, First Infantry, has no recollection of the case.

Capt. S. M. Hackney, Twenty-first Infantry, states that he was recorder of a board of claims convened at Santiago de Cuba early in 1900. Colonel McGunnegle and Lieutenant-Colonel Dunn, judge-advocate, were the other members of the board. Captain Hackney does not remember this specific case, among the many presented to the board, but states that in nearly all the cases investigated it was found that the damage was done by Spanish troops prior to the American occupation. Captain Hackney left Cuba in July, 1900, and turned the records and unfinished cases over to Lieutenant-Colonel Dunn, judge-advocate.

Lieutenant-Colonel Dunn, judge-advocate, states that he has no recollection of this case. In May, 1900, the time at which Lieutenant Armstrong appears to have made his investigation, Lieutenant-Colonel Dunn believes he was not in Santiago, having left that city, he thinks, in the latter part of April for the United States. All the records of the board of which he was a member he turned over to the adjutant-general of the department before he left. Any private memoranda he may have had were burned in the San Francisco fire.

From the foregoing it seems clear that no additional information can now be obtained by the War Department which will shed light on the case.

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It is well settled that for the wanton or wrongful acts of soldiers in their person character the Government can not be held responsible; in the absence, therefore, of evidence that the houses belonging to the claimants were destroyed by proper authority under circumstances which would warrant payment by the department, it is not seen how any but an unfavorable report can be made in this case.

George B. Davis, Judge-Advocate-General.