Nr. 11972. Vereinigte 21. Okt. 1898. sula. Copies of the part relative to the said sovereignty which may appear in other documents, and titles which refer moreover to other matters distinct Staaten from the Island of Cuba or its sovereignty and rights, existing in said und Spanien. archives, must also be furnished when the United States shall require the same. A like rule must be reciprocally observed with respect to Spain in so far as relates to documents and titles unconnected in whole or in part with the Island of Cuba that may now be in its archives and which are of interest to the Spanish Government. || All official archives and records, executive as well as judicial, at the disposal of the Government of Spain and of its authorities in the Island of Cuba, and which refer to the said island or its inhabitants, their rights and property, shall remain without any reservation whatever of this kind at the disposal of the United States, to preserve the same or dispose of them with the same authority exercised over them up to the present time by the Spanish Government and its authorities. Private parties, Spaniards as well as Cubans, shall have the right to make in accordance with law authenticated copies of the contracts, wills, and other instruments forming part of notarial protocols or files, all of which may be in the executive and judicial archives, be the latter in Spain or in the Island of Cuba. Article IV. As compensation for the losses and expenses occasioned the United States by the war and for the claims of its citizens by reason of the injuries and damages they may have suffered in their persons and property during the last insurrection in Cuba, Her Catholic Majesty, in the name and representation of Spain, and thereunto constitutionally authorised by the Cortes of the Kingdom, cedes to the United States of America, and the latter accept for themselves, the Island of Porto Rico and the other islands now under Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, as also the Island of Guam in the Mariana or Ladrones Archipelago, which island selected by the United States of America in virtue of the provisions of Article II of the Protocol signed in Washington on August 12 last. Article V. This cession of the sovereignty over the territory and inhabitants of Porto Rico and the other islands mentioned is understood to embrace the cession of the rights and obligations, property and documents relating to the sovereignty of said islands alike in all respects to the relinquishment and transfer of the sovereignty of the Island of Cuba as defined in the foregoing articles. Nr. 11973. Staaten 24. Okt. 1898. Nr. 11973. VEREINIGTE STAATEN und SPANIEN. 8. Sitzung. 24. Oktober 1898. The American Commissioners stated that they had carefully considered Vereinigte the articles tendered by the Spanish Commissioners at the last meeting, by und Spanien. Which, while Spain was to relinquish sovereignty over Cuba, such relinquishment was to be accepted by the United States and was to include such charges and obligations, outstanding at the ratification of the treaty as should be held by a Commission not to be properly and peculiarly chargeable to the treasury of the Peninsula, but to be properly and peculiarly Cuban, and that they must reject the articles in question as well as any articles that required the United States to assume, either for itself or for Cuba, the so-called Cuban debt. They were willing, however, to add to the article in which Spain relinquished sovereignty over and title to Cuba, a suitable stipulation by which the United States would assume the obligations as to the protection of life and property imposed by its occupation, so long as such occupation should continue. After much discussion, the President of the Spanish Commission stated that the Spanish Commissioners did not care for the phraseology in which the relinquishment of sovereignty was expressed, so long as it embraced an obligation as to debts, such as was stated in the second of the articles presented by them. The President of the American Commission, replying to this statement, inquired whether the President of the Spanish Commission intended thereby to say that the Spanish Commissioners would refuse to consider any articles as to Cuba and Porto Rico which contained no provision for the assumption of indebtedness by the United States, or Cuba, or both. Nr. 11974. VEREINIGTE STAATEN und SPANIEN. 9. Sitzung. Schuldfrage für Cuba und Portorico. Nr. 11974. Staaten 26. Okt. 1898. 26. Oktober 1898. The Spanish Commissioners filed under the rules a memorandum, copy Vereinigte and translation of which are hereto annexed, giving their reasons in support und Spanien. of the articles presented by them on the 21 st. of October, and rejected by the American Commissioners on the 24th. || The American Commissioners stated that they would file under the rules a written reply which should be annexed to the protocol. The Spanish Commissioners then made to the inquiry addressed to them by the American Commissioners, at the close of the last session, the following reply: || "The Spanish Commissioners, having become acquainted with the questions propounded to them at the end of the last conference by the President of the American Commission having read it and studied it in order to understand with all clearness its meaning and its scope; "Considering that in the conference held by the two Commissions on the 14th of this month it was resolved that no agreement reached upon any article should be considered as the final expressiou of the views and opinions Vereinigte 26. Okt. 1898. of either Government on the points and matter contained therein, until after Nr. 11974. an agreement should be reached on all other articles of the treaty, or in Staaten other words upon the whole of it: || "Considering therefore that the question und Spanien propounded by the President of the American Commission cannot now be given any answer, which without violation of the resolution unanimously adopted by the two Commissions at the aforesaid conference of the 14th instant, may involve the final approval of the article or articles to which the question refers: || "Considering furthermore that even in case such resolution as the above had not been agreed upon by the Commissioners, its adoption would have been required by the very nature and essence of the mission entrusted to them, which is to frame a treaty of peace, settling not only the question of the Antilles but also that of the Philippine Islands and all other questions, even of lesser importance, which may exist between the two High Contracting Parties: || "Considering that this treaty is not to be framed, as no other treaty has, or can, be ever framed, upon the exclusive basis of strict justice, as understood by each party, but also upon the basis of the advantage to be derived by either or by both, thus modifying in harmony there with the demands of strict law; and that, therefore, the Spanish Commissioners, although understanding that strict law decides the question of the Cuban debt in their favor, are in duty bound and are willing to moderate the said strictness in view of the advantages which Spain may derive from other stipulations of the treaty which, without being prejudicial to the United States, may be favorable to Spain; || "Considering therefore that the article or articles to which the President of the American Commission refers can not at this time be the subject of final approval, since they must remain subject to the others to be included in the same treaty, meeting the approval of both High Parties: "The Spanish Commissioners answer the said question by stating that, reiterating their conviction that pursuant to law the colonial obligations of Cuba and Puerto Rico must follow these islands and their sovereignty, they do not refuse to consider any articles as to Cuba and Puerto Rico which contain no provision for the assumption of indebtedness by the United States, or Cuba, or both', subordinating the final approval of such articles to that of the others which are to form the complete treaty, and they, therefore, invite the American Commissioners to enter upon the discussion of the other points to be embodied in the Treaty, and, at the outset, to take up the discussion of the Philippine Archipelago, and to propose to the Spanish Commissioners what they understand should be agreed upon in said Treaty with respect to this subject." The American Commissioners, after the reading of this paper, inquired whether they were to understand that the Spanish Commissioners accepted the articles previously presented by them as to Cuba, Porto Rico, and Guam. || The Spanish Commissioners replied that they accepted them in the sense stated in the paper provisionally, subject to the conclusion of a treaty of peace. Nr. 11975. Nr. 11975. VEREINIGTE STAATEN und SPANIEN. — 10. Sitzung. 27. Oktober 1898. The American Commissioners presented their written reply, copy of which is hereto annexed, to the memorandum filed by the Spanish Commissioners at und Spanien. the last session in support of the articles which they presented on the 21st 27. Okt. 1898. instant, and which were afterwards rejected by the American Commissioners. The American Commissioners, referring to the acceptance by the Spanish Commissioners, in the terms expressed in the protocol of the last session, of the articles presented by the American Commissioners, said that they were uncertain whether the acceptance was intended to apply to the articles first or to those last presented by them, and suggested that, if it was immaterial to the Spanish Commissioners, the American Commissioners preferred that the acceptance should be taken to refer to the articles first presented by them, as those articles contained provisions as to public archives and records. || The President of the Spanish Commission replied that, as his acceptance of the articles was conditional upon the approval of the treaty of peace, he had no objection to accepting these or any other articles, and especially as the first article of the American project was the same, saving differences in diplomatic form, as the first paragraph of the first Spanish article; but that he did not mean that he renounced the second paragraph of that article, and that with respect to this part and to the other articles presented by Spain, he reserved, as provided in the protocol of the 5th session, all the rights therein contained if there was no ultimate agreement upon the whole. || The President of the American Commission replied that the American Commissioners were content to take the acceptance of the Spanish Commissioners, as expressed in their paper and entered in the protocol of the last conference, as applying to the articles last submitted, which were expressed in the words of the Protocol of August 12, 1898. || The President of the Spanish Commission repeated that the form or wording of those or of the other articles was a matter of indifference to him; and he asked whether the American Commissioners would object to inserting in the article in which the cession of Porto Rico and the other islands in the West Indies and the island of Guam was made, or in any of the other articles of the treaty, a statement that the cession was made as indemnity for the expenses of the war and the injuries suffered during it by American citizens. || The President of the American Commission replied that the articles should stand as when they were accepted, and be considered as disposed of for the present, adding further that the American Commissioners did not mean to be understood that it should not appear in some proper form in the treaty that the cession of Porto Rico and the other islands above referred to was on account of indemnity for the losses and injuries of American citizens and the cost of the war. This view had been expressed in Vereinigte 27. Okt. 1898. the note addressed to the Spanish Government containing the demand of the Nr. 11975. President of the United States, and the American Commissioners recognized Staaten the force and meaning of that demand. | The President of the Spanish Com- und Spanion. mission said that it was not his intention now to discuss this point, but to state his desire that the question and the answer to it should be entered in the protocol. The President of the Spanish Commission then inquired whether the American Commissioners were ready to answer the written proposal presented by the Spanish Commissioners at the last session, in which they accepted conditionally the two articles of the American draft. || The President of the American Commission said that he understood that in the said proposal the American Commissioners were invited to present their propositions in regard to the Philippine Islands, and said that as this matter was of capital importance, and as the American Commissioners were not yet ready to submit a proposal in regard to it, he would propose an adjournment in order that they might have an opportunity to do so, and would suggest that in the mean time the Secretaries should endeavor to agree on the terms of the article relating to public property, archives and records in Cuba, Porto Rico and other islands in the West Indies, and Guam, for submission to the Joint Commission. This suggestion was adopted, as well as the proposal for an adjournment; and it was agreed, on motion of the American Commissioners, that the Joint Commission should meet again on Monday the 31st of October, at two o'clock, p. m., when the American Commissioners should present a proposal on the subject of the Philippines; and that if by that time the American Commissioners were not prepared to do so the meeting should be postponed to a later day. Nr. 11976. VEREINIGTE STAATEN und SPANIEN. Vereinigte The American Commissioners stated that, in accordance with the under- Nr. 11976. standing expressed in the protocol which had just been read, they were pre- Staaten pared to present their proposal on the subject of the Philippines. The pro- und Spanien. posal was read in English and translated into Spanish, and delivered to the 31. Okt. 1898. Spanish Commissioners. It was as follows: "The American Commissioners, having been invited by the Spanish Commissioners at the last conference to present a proposition in regard to the Philippine Islands, beg to submit the following article on that subject: 'Spain hereby cedes to the United States. the archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and lying within the following line: A line running along the parallel of latitude 21° 30′ North from the 118th to the 127 th degree meridian of longitude East of Greenwich, thence along the 127 th degree meridian of longitude East of Greenwich to |