Sir M. H Herbert to Mr. Hay.
Newport, June 18, 1903.
Dear Mr. Secretary: I have received your note of the 16th instant in regard to the refusal to the British agent of an extension of time for the delivery of the Alaska counter cases, and have telegraphed its substance to my Government.
In this note I notice the following sentence: “You will remember that during the negotiation of the treaty organizing the present tribunal, when you asked for a longer period than two months each for the preparation of the case and counter case, I explained to you the President’s wish that if the boundary was to be submitted to adjudication it should be concluded within the time indicated by me, you accepted those conditions, and the treaty was signed.”
It is true that I took exception to the short time allotted for the preparation of the cases and counter cases, but I have no recollection of accepting any condition specifying the time within which the adjudication was to be concluded. All I understood you to say at the time was that there was no need to prolong the periods which you had suggested for the preparation of the cases and counter eases owing to the fact that the evidence on which each party relied was already in the possession of the two Governments, and that there was nothing to be done except to put it into shape. But, assuming that I am wrong, any arrangement such as you indicate would necessarily have been modified by Article II of the treaty, which confers the right on both parties to ask for an extension of time.
Your note also states that I asked in March for an extension of time for the preparation of the case and counter case. I certainly supported the request of the British agent for an extension of time for the case in a conversation with Mr. Loomis, during your absence from Washington, but I did not ask on that occasion for a prolongation of the period allotted by the treaty for the preparation of the counter case.
Believe me, dear Mr, Secretary, yours, very truly,