No. 395.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Valera.
Washington, July 14, 1884.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive this morning your note of the 12th instant, whereby you acquaint me with reports furnished by the consul of Spain at Savannah, Ga., to the effect that the Cuban filibusters have established deposits of arms, munitions, and dynamite at points near New Orleans, to the westward of Mobile, in keys in the vicinity of Key West, and in the Turk’s Islands, with the purpose of removing them therefrom in small smacks which may elude the vigilance of the war vessels stationed in the Gulf of Mexico. In consequence of this information you request that the Government of the United States take appropriate steps, if possible, to discover the reported deposits.
[Page 518]This Government, which has omitted no effort to lay its hand on any overt act of hostility against Spain, and to enforce its own laws in the premises, will gladly continue to do all that may be possible in this direction. To this end I communicate copies of your note to the Secretaries of the Navy and of the Treasury and to the Attorney-General for such action as may be feasible.
Permit me, however, to observe that this information, coming from a point distant from those indicated, lacks the essential quality of definiteness, and would appear to embody the substance of floating rumors which have reached the Spanish consul at Savannah. Let me add that it seems not to have occurred to you that the rumored deposit at Turk’s Islands is not within the competence of this Government to investigate, those islands being possessions of the British crown.
Accept, &c.,