JOHN DAVIS, Acting Secretary to JOHN MERCER Langston, August 14, 1884
No. 226. Mr. Davis to Mr. Langston.
No. 288.]
Sir: Your dispatch, No. 651, of the 21st of July last, in relation to claims of American citizens against Hayti, for losses suffered in consequence of the events of the 22d and 23d of September, 1883, has been received.
Your course in the matter, as disclosed in this dispatch, in pursuance of my instructions of the 7th of March last (No. 265), has been discreet and sagacious, and meets with my approval. You will continue to adhere to that instruction, and press for an early settlement of these small claims, amounting, as they do in all, to less than $30,000.
While it is not probable that any other claims of that class will be brought forward by citizens of the United States, you were, nevertheless, right in declining to fix the 22d of July as a limitation to the presentation of such claims.
The date of the meeting of the proposed mixed commission, as embodied in the memorandum which was forwarded to you by the Department and which you have laid before Mr. St. Victor, as a limitation of the presentation of such claims, seems both reasonable and just. You will, therefore, adhere to it.
I am, &c.,
Acting Secretary