550.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
P
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CO.
Reference :-
885
12 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
MY LORD,
No. 283.
(Gibraltar.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
WE were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Mr. Currie's
Temple, 1st January 1883. letter of the 19th December, stating that with reference to the case of the expulsion of the Cuban refugees from Gibraltar, and to our report thereon of the 5th December (a printed copy of which was enclosed), he now had the honour to transmit to us, by direction of your Lordship, the report of the Committee appointed by the Governor of Gibraltar to inquire into all the circumstances of the case.
That the report would be found on p. 73 of the print which was enclosed.
That Mr. Currie was also to enclose a Despatch from Her Majesty's Minister at Madrid (No. 170 of the 6th December), in which Sir R. Morier stated the grounds on which he conceived that no exception could justly be taken to the action of the Spanish consul in the matter.
That Mr. Currie was to request that we would inform your Lordship, at our earliest convenience, after a perusal of the report of the Committee and of Sir R. Morier's Despatch, and generally of the correspondence comprised in the print, whether we were still of opinion that the Spanish consul could be charged with any suppression of fact to which could be attributed the unfortunate error committed by the British officials, and if not, whether, having regard to the provisions of the Extra- dition Treaty, we were of opinion that the part taken by the Spanish consul in bringing about the surrender of the fugitives by way of expulsion from Gibraltar, and preconcerted arrest by the Spanish police, was such as to justify Her Majesty's Government in addressing any complaint or remonstrance to the Government of Spain.
We were honoured also with a further letter from Mr. Currie, of the 20th December, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit to us the papers marked in the margin, relating respectively to the case of Patrick Lawler, a convict, who, having escaped from Gibraltar in 1860, was recaptured at Algeciras, and was subse- quently set at liberty on the Neutral Ground, and to the circumstances under which certain Spanish emigrants were sent away from Gibraltar in August 1844.
That those papers might be of assistance to us in forming an opinion on the question connected with the Cuban refugees which was submitted to us in Mr. Currie's letter of yesterday's date.
In obedience to your Lordship's commands we have the honour to
Report
That, having perused the report of the Committee and the correspondence comprised in the accompanying print, we do not think that the unfortunate error committed by British officials can justly be said to be due to "a suppression of fact" by the Spanish consul in the sense in which those words would be ordinarily understood.
The consul appears to have communicated two documents as he received them to General Baynes. In the first (the copy of the telegram from the Governor of Algeciras) Maceo is described as " the exiled Cuban." In the second (the telegram from the Governor of Cadiz) the description is the same, but the following words are added: "This implies that he was undergoing imprisonment."
There is nothing before us to show in what sense General Baynes read these descriptions, except the employment by him of the phrase "fugitive criminal" in the memorandum of the 16th August, addressed by him to the Police Magistrate, which leaves his interpretation still in doubt. But if General Baynes did draw the inference from the expressions referred to that Maceo and his companions were criminals of a class whose extradition could be demanded, he ought not to have done so; and we do not think that the Spanish consul can be held responsible for such an error, if it existed.
▲ 12916.-863. 25.-12/84.