Mr. Hardy to Mr. Hay.

No. 194.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram of the 10th instant.

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I immediately called upon the minister for foreign affairs at his house and brought your suggestion to his notice. * * * He promised to bring the subject before the council of ministers and to inform me at once of the result. Three days having passed without information, I called at the ministry to-day, and after some conversation in which it was apparent that the minister’s view as above expressed had been confirmed, he requested me to inform you that for the present His Majesty’s Government would not take any action beyond its declaration of neutrality; that to suggest the recognition by the belligerents of the neutrality of China might not seem to be in strict [Page 807] conformity with the duties of Spain as a neutral, and that for the present Spain would await the action of the interested powers.

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I have, etc.,

Arthur S. Hardy.