vidually and collectively, at the conclusion that these claims do not constitute, upon the principles of international law applicable to such cases, good foundation for an award of compensation or computation of damages between nations; and should, upon such principles, be wholly excluded from the consideration of the Tribunal in making its award, as to the competency of there were no disagreement between the two Governments Tribunal to decide thereon. With a view to the ment of the other claims, to the consideration of which by the Tribunal no exception has been taken on the part of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, the Arbitrators have thought it desirable to lay before the parties this expression of the views they have formed upon the question of public law involved, in order that, after this declaration by the Tribunal, it may be considered by the Government of the United States whether any course can be adopted respecting the first-mentioned claims which would relieve the Tribunal from the necessity of deciding upon the present application of Her Britannic Majesty's Government. DAVIS. No. 113. Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish. [Telegram.] GENEVA, June, 19, 1872. (Received at 6 p. m.) The Counsel write me as follows: We are of the opinion that the announcement this day made by the Tribunal must be received by the United States as determinative of its judgment upon the question of public law involved, upon which the United States have insisted upon taking the opinion of the Tribunal. We advise, therefore, that it should be submitted to, as precluding the propriety of further insisting upon the claims covered by this declaration of the Tribunal, and that the United States, with a view of maintaining the due course of the arbitration on the other claims without adjournment, should announce to the Tribunal that the said claims covered by its opinion will not be further insisted upon before the Tribunal by the United States, and may be excluded from all consideration by the Tribunal in making its award. No. 114. DAVIS. Mr. Fish to General Schenck. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Send following by telegraph, and also by mail, without delay, to Davis, Geneva: [Mr. Fish to Mr. Davis.] Your telegram of 19th informs me that the Tribunal has made a declaration stating that the Arbitrators have arrived at the conclusion that a class of the claims set forth in the Case presented in behalf of the United States do not constitute, upon the principles of international law applicable to such cases, a good foundation for an award of compensation or computation of damages between nations, and should, upon such principles, be wholly excluded from the consideration of the Tribunal in making up its award. You also inform me that the Counsel of this Government before the Tribunal at Geneva have advised in writing that they are of opinion that the announcement thus made by the Tribunal must be received by the United States as determinative of its judgment upon the question of public law involved, upon which the United States have insisted upon taking the opinion of the Tribunal; that the Counsel advise, therefore, that this judgment be submitted to as precluding the propriety of further insisting upon the claims covered by the declaration of the Tribunal; and that the United States, with a view of maintaining the due course of arbitration on the other claims, without adjournment, should announce its opinion that the claims referred to by the Tribunal will not be further insisted upon by the United States, and may be excluded from its consideration by the Tribunal in making its award. I have laid your telegrams before the President, who directs me to say that he accepts the declaration of the Tribunal as its judgment upon a question of public law, which he had felt that the interests of both Governments required should be decided, and for the determination of which he had felt it important to present the claims referred to for the purpose of taking the opinion of the Tribunal. This is the attainment of an end which this Government had in view in the putting forth of those claims. We had no desire for a pecuniary award, but desired an expression by the Tribunal as to the liability of a neutral for claims of that character. The President, therefore, further accepts the opinion and advice of the Counsel as set forth above, and authorizes the announcement to the Tribunal that he accepts their declaration as determinative of their judgment upon the important question of public law upon which he had felt it his duty to seek the expression of their opinion; and that in accordance with such judgment and opinion, from henceforth he regards the claims set forth in the Case presented on the part of the United States for loss in the transfer of the American commercial marine to the British flag, the enhanced payment of insurance, and the prolongation of the war, and the addition of a large sum to the cost of the war, and the suppression of the rebellion, as adjudicated and disposed of; and that, consequently, they will not be further insisted upon before the Tribunal by the United States, but are henceforth excluded from its consideration by the Tribunal in making its award. FISH. No. 115. Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish. [Telegram.] GENEVA, June 25, 1872. (Received at 8 p. m.) Counsel write me regarding the statement sent Schenck for you to-day : We concur in the form of communication to the Tribunal of the action of our Government which you propose to make. DAVIS. No. 116. General Schenck to Mr. Fish. [Telegram.] LONDON, June 26, 1872. (Received at 11 a. m.) Davis telegraphs as follows: [Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish ] At the Conference convened this day [June 25] by Count Sclopis, I said the declaration made by the Tribunal, individually and collectively, respecting the claims presented by the United States for the award of the Tribunal for, first, the losses in the transfer of the American commercial marine to the British flag; second, the enhanced payment of insurance; and third, the prolongation of the war, and the addition of a large sum to the cost of the war and the suppression of the rebellion, is accepted by the President of the United States as determinative of their judgment upon the important question of public law involved. The Agent of the United States is authorized to say that consequently the above-mentioned claims will not be further insisted upon before the Tribunal by the United States, and may be excluded from all consideration in any award that may be made. To this Lord Tenterden replied: "I will inform my Government of the declaration made by the Arbitrators on the 19th instant, and of the statement now made by the Agent of the United States, and request their instructions." The Tribunal then adjourned to Thursday at 11, to enable him to communicate by telegraph with his Government. SCHENCK. No. 117. Mr. Schenck to Mr. Fish. [Telegram.] LONDON, June 27, 1872. (Received at 12 m.) Davis telegraphs me to send you the following: [Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish.] Lord Tenterden will say this day to Tribunal, Her Majesty's Government finding the communication on the part of the Arbitrators recorded in the Protocol of their proceedings of the 19th instant nothing to which they cannot assent consistently with their view of the interpretation and effect of the Treaty of Washington, hitherto maintained by them; and being informed of the statement made on the 25th instant by the Agent of the United States, that the several claims particularly mentioned in that statement will not be further insisted upon before the Tribunal by the United States, and may be excluded from all consideration in any award that may be made, and assuming that the Arbitrators will, upon such statement, think fit now to declare that the said several claims are, and from henceforth will be, wholly excluded from their consideration, and will embody such declaration in their Protocol of this day's proceedings, they have instructed the undersigned, upon this being done, to request leave to withdraw the application made by him to the Tribunal on the 15th instant for such an adjournment as might enable a supplementary convention to be concluded and ratified between the High Contracting Parties, and to request leave to deliver the printed argument now in the hands of the undersigned, which has been prepared on the part of Her Britannic Majesty's Government, under the fifth Article of the Treaty. With reference to the other claims to the consideration of which, by the Tribunal, no exception has been taken on the part of Her Majesty's Government. SCHENCK. No. 118. Mr. Davis to Mr. Fish. [Telegram.] GENEVA, June 27, 1872. (Received at 3.45 p. m.) British argument filed. Arbitration goes on. DAVIS. [From British Blue Book "North America," No. 10, (1872,) p. 12.] No. 119. Earl Granville to Lord Tenterden. FOREIGN OFFICE, July 1, 1872. MY LORD: I have received and laid before the Queen your several dispatches reporting your proceedings at Geneva, between the 14th and 28th ultimo, and I have to convey to you Her Majesty's entire approval of the able and prudent manner in which you have acquitted yourself in the discharge of the important and delicate duties with which you were intrusted. Her Majesty appreciates to its full extent the value of the assistance which Sir Roundell Palmer was good enough to afford, at no small personal sacrifice, in the solution of a question of such importance; and, although I shall convey directly to Sir Roundell Palmer the thanks of Her Majesty's Government, I think it right to place on official record Her Majesty's gracious sentiments, and you will have the goodness to furnish him with a copy of this dispatch. I should not do justice to the feelings of Her Majesty's Government if I did not at the same time acknowledge the conciliatory spirit shown by your American colleagues. And, although the existence of such good feeling, on the part of the Agents of the two countries, facilitated the deliberations of the Arbitrators in dealing with the question which first engaged their attention, it is still the duty of Her Majesty's Government to acknowledge the thoughtfulness and wisdom which caused them to adopt and act on the conclusions at which they spontaneously arrived. I am, &c., GRANVILLE. No. 290.] No. 120. General Schenck to Mr. Fish. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, London, August 12, 1872. (Received August 23.) SIR: On Saturday, the 10th instant, the day on which Parliament was prorogued, I did not receive official copies of the Queen's speech in time for the mail of that day. I forward now, herewith, two copies. You will observe what Her Majesty is made to say in regard to the declaration of the Arbitrators at Geneva on the subject of the claims for indirect losses; that it is entirely consistent with the views which she announced at the opening of the session. On the contrary, the ground taken in the Queen's speech in February last was, that the United States had put forward certain claims which Her Majesty's Government held not to be within the scope of the Treaty. But the Arbitrators studiously avoided giving any opinion on that point, and confined themselves to an expression of opinion, in effect by the Tribunal, that without reference to the question of admissibility or inadmissibility of such claims under the Treaty, they could not, under the principles of public law, bẹ considered in making up an award, because of their remote or consequential character. I have, &c., ROBT. C. SCHENCK. [Inclosure in No. 120.] Extract from Her Majesty's most gracious speech. MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN: The time has now arrived when you may properly relinquish the performance of your arduous duties for a term of repose, which has been honorably earned by your devoted assiduity. I rejoice to inform you that the controversy which had arisen between my Government and the Government of the United States, in consequence of the presentation of the American claims for indirect losses under the Treaty of Washington, has been composed by a spontaneous declaration of the Arbitrators entirely consistent with the views which I announced to you at the opening of the session. In concurrence with your action on the part of the United Kingdom, the Parliament of Canada has passed the acts necessary to give effect to the Treaty within the Dominion. All the arrangements contemplated by that instrument are, therefore, now in progress, and I reflect with satisfaction that the subjects with which it has dealt no longer offer any impediment to a perfect concord between two kindred nations. * 炻 No. 260.1 No. 121. Mr. Fish to General Schenck. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 31, 1872. SIR: I have the pleasure to acknowledge your No. 290, inclosing two copies of the Queen's speech on the prorogation of the two Houses of Parliament, on the 10th instant. ་ The telegram had enabled the public journals to bring to my notice this speech, or at least that part of it where Her Majesty is made to say that the declaration of the Arbitrators at Geneva is entirely consistent with the views which she announced to Parliament at the opening of the session, and I had observed what you comment upon, that Her Majesty in her speech at the opening of the session had said, "In the case so submitted on behalf of the United States, large claims have been included which are understood on my part not to be within the province of the Arbitrators." A very long correspondence ensued in which this Government contended, in effect, that all the claims presented were within the proper jurisdiction of the Tribunal, and that they could be disposed of only upon the judgment, or award, of the Arbitrators. At their fifth conference, on 19th June, Count Sclopis, as President of the Tribunal, on behalf of all the Arbitrators, made a statement, in the course of which he said, "The Arbitrators think it right to state that after the most careful perusal of all that has been urged on the part of the Government of the United States in respect of these claims," (referring to those which Her Majesty had thought were not within the province of the Tribunal,) "they have arrived, individually and collectively, at the conclusion that these claims do not constitute, upon the principles of international law applicable to such cases, good foundation for an award of compensation, or computation of damages between nations.” The President of the Tribunal, in behalf of all the Arbitrators, officially states that they had given "the most careful perusal " to "all that had been urged in respect of the claims"-this looks very much like taking cognizance of them;-that after such perusal they had not only individually but "collectively" arrived at a "conclusion" the "collective" action of a Board must be official action. |