Mr. Adee to Mr. Eustis.

No. 437.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 337, of the 18th ultimo, inclosing copy of your later correspondence with Mr. Hanotaux, concerning the noncompliance of the French Government with the request heretofore made and repeated for the evidence in the military proceedings against Mr. Waller in Madagascar.

On the 10th ultimo you were furnished with certain papers in the case transmitted hither by Mr. Wetter, the consul at Tamative, under date of April 20, last. Among those papers you will have noticed a communication addressed to Mr. Wetter by Captain Campion, commanding the cruiser Le Dupetit, dated 17th April, in which the following passage occurs:

In your letter No. 223, you acknowledge the receipt of the copy of the sentence of the aforesaid Waller and you ask of me a certified copy of the depositions, charges, and proceedings. I have the honor to inform you that all the papers in the case (le dossier complet de cette affaire) having been sent to France, it is impossible for me to satisfy your request.

In view of this statement, the Department does not understand that part of Mr. Hanotaux’s note of July 10 in which he says: “According to the indications which have been furnished to me, the documents in question have been kept at Madagascar, and their sending to Paris will require a certain delay.”

My telegram of the 31st ultimo, confirmed in my No. 486, of the 1st instant, will have instructed you touching the further treatment of the case.

I am, etc.,

Alvey A. Adee,
Acting Secretary
.