Mr. Bayard to Mr. Becerra.
Washington, June 19, 1885.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of yesterday’s date, in which you communicate to me the information you have received by telegraph from the national authorities at Panama concerning [Page 277] the alleged purchase in Jamaica of the steamer Vertumnus by the agents of the Colombian insurgents and the dispatch of that vessel to New York, there to be fitted out for hostile operations against Colombia.
Copy of your letter will be sent to-day to the Attorney General with the request that the United States attorney at New York be instructed to take whatever steps may be necessary in view of competent evidence being adduced to show that the Vertumnus is violating or about to violate the laws of the United States.
Permit me, however, to remind you that complaint Or information, made under oath by any person or persons cognizant of the facts, and lodged before a judicial tribunal or magistrate, is the usual and requisite way of setting the necessary proceedings on foot in order to establish the alleged violation of law and to apply the provided remedy.
The United States attorney at New York will be requested to lend all necessary aid to the agents of the Colombian Government in making out a case for action.
Accept, &c.,