File No. 417.00/76.
[Inclosure.]
The Acting Secretary of
State to the American Chargé
d’Affaires at Madrid.
Department of State,
Washington, October 10,
1911.
Sir: As you are probably aware, the
Government of Nicaragua, with the advice of this Government and as a
corollary of the general plan for the rehabilitation of the finances
of Nicaragua, has established a Nicaraguan Claims Commission to
adjudicate the claims of nationals and foreigners against the
Government of Nicaragua. Most of these claims are on behalf of
Nicaraguan citizens and are a result of the long and arbitrary
administration of ex-President Zelaya Nationals of the United
States, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, and other
countries, however, also have claims against Nicaragua.
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By a decree ratified by the Nicaraguan Assembly on April 4 last, it
was ordered that the commission should be composed of three
members—one Nicaraguan and two Americans. Dr. Cuadra Pasos and Mr.
Moffat were appointed by the Government of Nicaragua, and Judge Otto
Schoenrich by this Government. Mr. Moffat has since been appointed
consul general of the United States at Singapore, and his successor
on the commission has not yet been designated. Judge Schoenrich, a
lawyer of high standing, formerly a member of the Porto Rican
district court, is the presiding commissioner. The commissioners are
to be remunerated solely by Nicaragua.
The Department, in advising that the commission be so composed,
sought only to assure the justice and impartiality of the tribunal
and to make it one to which foreign Governments would be likely to
look for the just consideration of the claims of their citizens.
It now appears, to the surprise of the Department, that some of the
foreign ministers, notably the German, English, and French, have
taken exception to this commission and have advised their nationals
not to submit their claims to it.
You will explain to the Spanish Government that this commission is a
purely Nicaraguan tribunal constituted by that Government to pass
upon claims against Nicaragua; that in accordance with the general
rule of international law regarding the exhaustion of local remedies
before diplomatic representations can become appropriate, save under
exceptional circumstances not appearing in the present situation,
the Government of Nicaragua would appear to be within its rights in
requiring that all claims should be adjudicated in the first
instance by this commission; that in the very unlikely event of an
actual denial of justice before this commission it obviously would
be open to Spain or any other power to take up such a case
diplomatically for final settlement by an international commission
or otherwise; that it can hardly be supposed that Spanish or any
other interests would be less safe before a Nicaraguan commission of
three, two members of which are American citizens approved by this
Government, than they would be before one of purely Nicaraguan
personnel, which would probably have been established had not this
Government secured the designation of two Americans.
This Government feels the more certain that the Spanish Government
will raise no objection to this strictly Nicaraguan commission,
since it is but a part of an apparently conscientious plan
undertaken by the Government of Nicaragua in order to rehabilitate
the finances of that country and to make its Government stable and
responsible. Any disarrangement of this plan tending to defeat its
purpose, which, under present conditions, seems reasonably assured,
must be highly deprecated. Spain, as well as the United States, is
commercially interested in the establishment of stable conditions
and a responsible Government in Nicaragua and in adjacent
countries.
The Department can not overemphasize the importance it attaches to
the successful carrying out of the plans for the rehabilitation of
Nicaragua, and it believes that all the countries commercially
interested in Central America will best serve their own interests by
promoting the realization of those plains.
The foregoing is for your information and guidance and anticipatory
of future telegraphic instructions pending the receipt of which you
will take no action in this matter.
I am, etc.,
