Mr. Muruaga to Mr. Gresham.
Washington, March 15, 1895.
The envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Majesty, the Queen Regent of Spain, has the honor to inform the honorable Secretary of State, W. Q. Gresham, that, according to a telegram of to-day’s date from the Spanish consul at Philadelphia, the commissioner and district attorney of the United States have declined to commence [Page 1190] judicial proceedings against a store of arms, ammunition, and equipment declared by the said consul to be intended for the Cuban insurgents.
The said arms, composed of 241 cases, form part of those taken from the yacht Lagonda at Fernandina, Fla., and were stored in the warehouses of Mr. Borden.
On Thursday, the 7th instant, the cases in question were surreptitiously and clandestinely shipped by express to Philadelphia, consigned to a Mr. Rubens, and are now stored in the warehouses of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
The steps taken by the Spanish consul having proved fruitless, the undersigned finds himself necessarily obliged to bring the matter to the attention of the honorable Secretary of State and to invoke the aid of the Federal Government, in order that an act contrary to the laws of the United States in regard to neutrality may not be committed.
The undersigned avails, etc.,