Mr. Baker to Mr. Gresham.

No. 169.]

Sir: I wish to add, in connection with my communications No. 161 and 164, that I received yesterday a letter from Mrs. Jacoby, the translation of which is as follows:

Masaya, December 8, 1893.

Mr. Lewis Baker, Managua:

My Dear Sir: I concluded to remain in this city until I should know whether or not they had given orders to suspend the loan. Last night my son telegraphed me that the governor of police had come yesterday to demand the contribution. I beg [Page 454] that, to spare my suffering an outrage, you will send me a statement of the minister to the effect that he has given orders for the suspension, or that you will indicate to me what I should do.

With the highest consideration, I remain, etc.,

Josefa Jacoby.

The day of Mrs. Jacoby’s visit, viz, the 6th, I gave her the following note:

Managua, Nicaragua, December 6, 1893.

My Dear Madam: In an interview this morning in relation to the case which you have submitted to this legation, viz, the demand from you, as an American citizen, of a forced loan, His Excellency the President agreed that no further demand shall be made upon you until the matter may be adjusted by instructions to me from Washington.

This you may use and show to whom it may concern; and should you be subjected to further trouble please telegraph me at once.

Yours, respectfully,

Lewis Baker.

I reply thereto to Mrs. Jacoby to-day as follows:

Managua, Nicaragua, December 9, 1893.

My Dear Madam: I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of December 8, and in reply thereto I will say that the note which I gave you on the day you were here is the only document I can furnish you, stating that His Excellency the President has agreed to leave the matter of the forced loan exacted from you in abeyance until I may receive definite instructions from Washington. I have entire confidence that the President will give instructions in order that this agreement may be complied with, and that, therefore, no trouble will be caused you until I may get a reply from the State Department.

I beg to remain your obedient servant,

Lewis Baker.

This morning I have verbal and extra-official notice that the contribution from Mrs. Jacoby will be collected, and that it is claimed the contribution can be levied on every foreigner; I am also informed that the Government does not want to recognize the sons of Mrs. Jacoby as American citizens.

Should this be the case, I shall make a most energetic protest, basing my action on paragraph 146 and 147 of the Consular Regulations of 1888 and on Department dispatch No. 15, of June 16, taken in connection with the treaty of 1867 between the United States and Nicaragua, and the preambles of the decrees of July 24 and August 3, under which said loan is collected, and which read as follows:

Decree of July 24, distributing throughout the Republic a forced loan of $500,000.

Whereas the ordinary resources are not sufficient for the maintenance of the forces raised for the purpose of reestablishing the public order subverted in Leon; and whereas it is indispensable to provide for those expenses by means of a forced loan, the President of the Republic decrees * * *

Decree of August 3, by which the forced loan decreed on the 24th of July last is reduced to $200,000.

Whereas the provisional Government, presided over by General Joaquin Zavala, made with the Bank of Nicaragua a contract for a loan of $100,000, to be paid by the product of a forced loan of $500,000, decreed on July 24;

Whereas the ordinary revenues of the nation are not sufficient to comply with this engagement in the short period stipulated, nor to finish to pay the extraordinary expenses incurred by the war; and whereas, on the other hand, the forced loan for the total amount of $500,000 is not necessary and should be reduced to what is strictly indispensable, the Junta of Goverment, in use of its faculties decrees * * *

I beg to remain, etc.,

Lewis Baker.