Mr. Gresham to Mr. Wos y Gil.
Washington, March 1, 1895.
Sir: A perusal of your note of the 18th ultimo, of which I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt, suggests that you may not entirely have comprehended, or I may not have expressed with sufficient clearness in previous interviews the position of this Government with regard [Page 241] to the apprehended purpose of the French Government to press the adjustment of certain claims against the Dominican Republic. At least I may assume that this is so, from your repetition of the statement heretofore made orally that the Dominican Government is disposed to resist all coercive acts on the part of France, “and to solicit the assistance of the Government of the United States.”
In our recent conversation, after you had stated your Government’s denial of the complicity of any of its authorities in the Caccavilli murder, which forms the more prominent feature of the French complaint, I explained that the United States could not claim that the Dominican Government’s contract with an American corporation precludes France from exercising against that Government whatever means of redress are sanctioned by international law; but that, as a friendly neutral, and mindful of the interest of American citizens under the contract in question, we might legitimately express the hope that France will exhaust all peaceful means of settling the controversy before resorting to force.
I have telegraphed to Mr. Eustis in this sense, adding that your Government denied that any of its officials were in any manner guilty of complicity in Caccavilli’s murder.
Accept, etc.,