Sidney Locock to Don Tomas Ayon, December 31, 1875

Sir: I do myself the honor officially to inform your excellency that Her Majesty’s consul at Grey Town, Mr. A Gollan, has been appointed by the chief of the Mosquito reserve as his agent, duly empowered by him to receive on his behalf from the Nicaraguan government the arrears due to him under the treaty of Managua with Great Britain, and has received authority from Her Majesty’s government to act in that capacity.

As the government of Nicaragua have recently manifested a wish to disembarrass themselves of the claim which the Mosquito chief has against them, on account of the arrears so long due to him under the treaty of Managua, they will probably learn with satisfaction of the appointment of an agent of the official position and character of Mr. Gollan, through whom they can effect their payment to the Mosquito chief in all security.

The last two communications on the subject of the arrears due to the Mosquito chief, which were addressed by my predecessor in 1872 and 1873 to the government of Nicaragua, not only having failed to meet with the attention to which representations on such a subject from Her Majesty’s government were entitled, but having further been suffered to remain without even the acknowledgment which is customary in diplomatic correspondence between foreign governments and their agents, I find myself placed under the necessity of requesting that your excellency will be so good as to honor me with some reply to, or acknowledgment of, the present communication.

It may be well, in order to prevent any further misconception, that I should remind your excellency that, inasmuch as the payments to which these communications refer were promised by the Nicaraguan government, in formal treaty engagement entered into with Great Britain, as one of the conditions on which Great Britain relinquished the protectorate which, before the date of the treaty of Managua, she had exercised over the Mosquito territory, Her Majesty’s government possess an incontestable right to see that the stipulations of that treaty are faithfully carried out, and that if it becomes evident, either from the neglect with which their representations are treated or from other circumstances, that Nicaragua is not making proper effort to redeem her pledges, they may find themselves compelled, however reluctantly, to interfere in order to obtain the fulfillment of those engagements.

I avail, &c.,