No. 88.
Memorandum read by Lord Granville in the
House of Lords.
[From British Blue Book “North America,” No. 9, (1872,) p. 37.]
I have spoken to General Schenck as to the annoyance which has been felt in and out of Parliament at the publication in the United States of the papers submitted to the Senate in their secret session.
I told him that, for obvious reasons, I much regretted it, but that I believed that it was no act of the Government of the United States.
Sir E. Thornton had informed me that these papers had been surreptitiously obtained.
General Schenck told me that he believed that the Government of the United States had not, through any of its Departments—the President, the Senate, or the Secretary of State—been a party to the publication of that correspondence. It appeared to have got put surreptitiously through the enterprise (if it may be called by so innocent a name) of the newspapers.
I have also spoken to General Schenck, and alluded to the unfavorable impression which has been created by certain passages in that correspondence wherein Mr. Fish declares the determination of the President to maintain the indirect claims before the Tribunal of Geneva. I told General Schenck that, from the various conversations which 1 have held with him, and from his written communications, I have been led to believe that the position of the United States was this:
The President held that the indirect claims were admissible under the Treaty; that the Treaty was made and ratified in that sense; and that, therefore, although he might by interchange of notes or otherwise, agree not to press for compensation for those claims, yet as being within the scope of the Treaty, it was not in his power to withdraw them—that could only be done by the exercise of the full Treaty-making power, including the concurrence of the Senate; that it was for this purpose that the President preferred, instead of an interchange of notes, that Her Majesty’s Government should adopt a supplementary Article, which for some sufficient consideration might enable the Government of the United States to declare that they would make no claim for such losses, and that the Arbitrators would thereby be prevented from entertaining these indirect claims.
[Page 557]General Schenck informed me that he agreed with me in my construction of what had passed, and I have submitted to him this report of our conversation.
I read this in the House of Lords last night.