Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1872, Part II, Volume II

No. 63.
Mr. Fish to General Schenck.

Department of State,
Washington, May 28, 1872.

No. 213.]

[For inclosure 2 in No. 62, see p. 526.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch of the 14th instant, No. 225, relating to the proposed new Article to the Treaty of May 8, 1871, and the Memorandum which accompanied it. That Memorandum is a very able and comprehensive review of the case, and presents the position of the United States, in the main, very fully.

The object of the United States in insisting on retaining the indirect claims before the Tribunal was:

I. The right under the treaty to present them.

II. To have them disposed of and removed from further controversy.

III. To obtain a decision either for or against the liability of a neutral for claims of that description.

IV. If the liability of a neutral for such claims is admitted in the future, then to insist on payment by Great Britain for those of the past.

V. Having a case against Great Britain, to have the same principle applied to it that may in the future be invoked against the United States.

I am, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.