Minister Russell to the Secretary of State.

No. 186.]

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that I have presented to the Venezuelan Government the five cases in which American citizens claim redress, in accordance with your instructions of February 28 Your instructions were sent here a week before my departure from Washington, and were held pending my arrival I inclose you herewith a copy of my note to the foreign office in presenting these cases, and a copy and translation of the answer from the minister for foreign affairs.

I have had several interviews with Dr Paul since I sent my note, and he assures me that he intends to study very carefully all the cases as they are now presented in your instructions to me, a copy of which was inclosed with my note, and that there will be no undue delay in his answer.

I am, etc.,

William W. Russell.
[Inclosure 1.]

Minister Russell to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Sir: In accordance with instructions from my Government I am directed to bring to the attention of the Venezuelan Government the five pending cases in which American citizens claim redress, and to ask for the serious and immediate consideration of these cases as presented in the inclosed copy of instructions to me.

My Government has devoted a considerable length of time to a very serious and careful reexamination of all these cases, and in the new and fuller light in which they are now again presented your excellency can not fail to take that favorable action in each case that is expected by my Government.

I take, etc.,

W. W. Russell.
[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Minister Russell.

Sir: I have received your excellency’s note of the 30th of last month, in which you inform me that your Government has instructed you to call the attention of the Government of Venezuela to five special cases in which American citizens claim redress, and to ask from this Government an immediate consideration of said cases as presented in a communication to your excellency from his excellency, Elihu Root, Secretary of State, dated the 28th of last February, and a copy of which, consisting of 50 pages of typewritten English, accompanied your excellency’s note.

Your excellency observes that your Government has devoted considerable time to a very serious and careful reexamination of all these cases, and that in the new and” fuller light in which they are now again presented I can not fail to take the favorable action in each case that your Government expects.

From a cursory examination I have made at first view of the five cases referred to in your excellency’s note, and in that of his excellency the Secretary of State, I have noted that for the first time are presented for the study and consideration of my Government the arguments in the two claims called [Page 798] “Orinoco Corporation” and “Crichfield” and there is no former communication concerning them on record in this ministry.

In regard to the other three cases—” Jaurett,” “Orinoco Steamship Co.” and “New York & Bermudez Co.”—which your excellency mentions as having been reexamined by the Government of the United States, devoting for this purpose considerable time in order to present them, as it is now done, in a new and fuller light, I must call your excellency’s attention to a fact very worthy to be taken into consideration, viz, that from the end of 1904 until March, 1905, these same three claims were actively pressed by your excellency’s predecessor, Mr. Herbert W. Bowen, the Government of Venezuela contending that the decisions in said cases were in conformity to principles that safeguarded the sovereignty and independence of the courts of justice of the Republic, to the exercise of its rights as a nation, and to the strict observance of international obligations of mixed commissions whose decisions it was agreed should be definite and inappealable.

This diplomatic discussion ended March 23, 1905, when answer was made from this ministry to the note of the 19th of the same month and year from your excellency’s predecessor, Mr. Herbert W. Bowen, who presented with his note a copy of instructions from his excellency Mr. John Hay, then Secretary of State of your excellency’s Government.

Since the above-mentioned date, March 23, 1905, my Government had received no declaration on the part of that of your excellency to indicate its purpose to insist on said claims as included in the inclosure with your excellency’s note, and for that reason it was considered that diplomatic discussion in regard to them was fundamentally closed.

Since the Government of the United States has presented these claims again, and as your excellency states in a new and fuller light, my Government proposes to consider carefully the new phase of the aforesaid three cases, and the grounds on which the Government of your excellency relies to introduce the other two cases—that of the Orinoco Corporation and that of Crichfield.

As soon as this ministry can acquaint itself fully with all the antecedents in the cases and with all the voluminous mass of documents which it must examine I will hasten to transmit a reply to your excellency.

I avail, etc.,

J. de J. Paul.