File No. 837.77/101.

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador.

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of February 27th last, referring to the matter of the petition addressed by the Cuban Central Railway to the President of Cuba requesting that the concession recently granted to the North Coast Railway Company should be canceled and that it might be granted to the petitioners.

The Department has today instructed the American Minister at Habana to take up the subject with the British Legation at that capital [Page 402] with a view to reaching some common understanding upon the facts of the case, about which there seems to be considerable difference of opinion.

I have [etc.]

P.C. Knox