15831.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
C.O.885
Reference :-
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
14 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
No. 70.
(NEW SOUTH WALES.)
LAW OFFICERS to FOREIGN OFFICE.
MY LORD,
We were honoured with your Lordship's commands signified in Sir Edward
Royal Courts of Justice, August 15, 1894. Grey's letter of the 23rd ultimo, stating that he was directed by your Lordship to transmit Despatches from Sir Horace Rumbold, Her Majesty's Minister at the Hague, respecting the case of the Costa Rica Packet," which formed the subject of Reports from our predecessors on the 3rd of April last, as well as on the 19th of April and 29th of September 1893.*
"
That Sir Edward Grey was also to enclose a letter from the Colonial Office to which C. O, Department Sir Horace Rumbold's two last despatches were in the first instance July 5, 201. referred. That, with regard to the penultimate paragraph of that letter, your Lordship was of opinion, having regard to the uncompromising attitude assumed by the Netherlands Government, that there were no grounds to warrant the belief that any further diplomatic representation with the view to obtaining the moderate sum asked for by way of compensation to Mr. Carpenter would be attended with a satisfactory rosult. That it was also to be borne in mind that, even were it conceded, such a settlement would fail far short of meeting the views of the Colony of New South Wales as to what, in their judgment, constituted an adequate compensation for the hardship and loss sustained by the master, the crew, and the owners of the vessel.
That, in these circumstances, it seemed to your Lordship, on grounds of general policy, that the preferable course was to proceed to consider the proposal of the Netherlands Government to submit the question to arbitration, and the bases on which that proposal might properly be accepted.
That the amount of compensation originally claimed was twenty-five thousand pounds. That the way in which that sum was arrived at was set out in the Statement of Claim on pages 11 and 12 of the copy of the "Case of Captain Carpenter.”
That, acting in conformity with the views expressed in the Law Officers' Report of the 19th of April 1893,† Her Majesty's Government had waived the question of compensation for the crew and owners of the vessel, and confined themselves to preferring a request for two thousand five hundred pounds for the master alone. That the exact text of the Note addressed to the Netherlands Government on this point would be found in Sir H. Rumbold's Despatch No. 31, Commercial, of May 20th, 1893. That the question now arose whether, having regard to what had passed, it would be open to Her Majesty's Government, in accepting arbitration on the case, to state that the larger claim of twenty-five thousand pounds must be submitted for the consideration of the arbitrator or arbitral tribunal.
That, on the one hand, the Government of New South Wales strongly urged the full claim, and that, from their point of view, it would undoubtedly be more satisfactory that it should be taken as a basis for arbitration. But that, on the other hand, it seemed almost certain, from the terms in which arbitration was suggested at the end of Monsieur de Roell's Note to Sir H. Rumbold of June 15th, that the Netherlands' Government would not accept that basis without demur. Government might, it was thought, reasonably contend that, on the evidence first But that Her Majesty's brought before them, and with the view, if possible, of arriving at a speely settlement, they had abstained from the putting forward the whole claim and had only asked for a sum which was so moderate that they apprehended no demur would arise to its being accepted, and that the Netherlands Government might be informed that, as they har refused to settle the question on those terms and preferred that the case should be submitted to arbitration, the questions to be considered by arbitrators would be. whether the contention of the Dutch Government was correct that no compensation at all was due, or whether the payment of the sum originally claimed, or some portion thereof, afforded an equitable solution of the controversy.
That it should be borne in mind, from that point of view, that since the date of Sir H. Rumbold's first Despatch the Colony had reiterated with much emphasis the argu- ments in favour of the claim of the owners and crew, and had furnished a large mass of evidence to support those arguments.
• 79871.-43.
* Nos. 564, 35, and 43A. 25.-9/91.
† No. 35.