File No. 2540/168–169.
The Secretary of State to Minister Fox.
Washington, December 3, 1909.
Sir: The department has received your unnumbered dispatch of December 15, 1908,1 inclosing a letter addressed to you by Mr. Archer Harman, president of the Guayaquil & Quito Railway Co., regarding the payment of the expenses incurred by you as the company’s arbiter in the settlement of its controversy with the Ecuadorian Government, and the company’s willingness to compensate you for your services in the arbitration.
The department is pleased to note in Mr. Harman’s letter the expressions of high appreciation on the part of the American stockholders of your work in their behalf as a member of the arbitral board created under Article XXVII of the contract of July 14, 1897, between the Government of Ecuador and the railway company.
Mr. Harman alludes to very considerable personal expenses incurred by you and expensive cables transmitted during the period of negotiations, and writes, “We feel it only fair that we should be [Page 247] permitted to reimburse you the expenditure you have incurred.” The department is in accord with Mr. Harman in thinking it just and proper that these expenses should be defrayed by the railway company, and to bring about that end you are instructed to write to Mr. Harman, and referring to his letter of December 5, 1908, bring to his attention any items that you may find in the accounts of the legation to have been paid by it but which were incurred in your work as arbitrator for the railway company. Moreover, if you personally have been put to any expense in the matter which the Government has not borne, you should, of course, be reimbursed.
Mr. Harman likewise expresses himself as of opinion that compensation to you for your services as member of the board would be fair, and says that he awaits an indication from you before seeking the proper authority to make arrangements therefor. The department has carefully considered this proposal and has been forced to the conclusion that it would not comport with the dignity of the American diplomatic service nor be a wise precedent to establish to permit a party interested in an arbitration before an American diplomatic officer to remunerate him for the discharge of his duties in any capacity whatever.
In conveying to you this conclusion the department wishes to felicitate you upon your part in the satisfactory development and termination of the negotiations in question, in which your conduct has been such as to merit and receive the hearty appreciation of all parties in interest.
I am, etc.,
- Not printed.↩