MR. GOLDSMIDasked the First Lord of the Treasury, Whether the statement is correct that the claims of American citizens to be paid under the Geneva Award do not amount to more than two millions and a half; and, if so, whether the Government of the United States proposes to return to the British Government the balance of the three millions and a half awarded by the tribunal to meet such claims of private individuals?
MR. GLADSTONEThe question of my hon. Friend is founded, I believe, upon statements which have appeared in the newspapers, and perhaps it is as well he should have put it, in order to enable me to remove certain misapprehensions which have arisen on this subject. An error—perhaps not the least that is generally entertained—appears on the face of the hon. Gentleman's Question with regard to the amount of the sum awarded—the exact sum is not £3,500,000, but £3,200,000. The state of the case is this, so far as I am aware. In the first place, I refer to a matter of fact. The claims preferred by the American Government, on the part of individuals who had suffered losses in America, before the Tribunal of Geneva—that is to say, the final claims as they stood on the 28th August, amounted to £6,000,000. That was the amount of the claims put forward by the American Government on the part of individuals, interest included. Then the amount awarded by the Tribunal was £3,200,000. By the Treaty there were two methods of proceeding open. One of them was, that the cases of damage or loss might have been examined separately, and then referred to assessors for the strict determination of the particular amount due; the other was, that a gross sum should be paid to the American Government; and if a gross sum were paid to the American Government, we had no power to look beyond or behind the payment of that sum. The method adopted by the Tribunal was the payment of a gross sum, and it is right to say that in adopting that method the Arbitrators followed a precedent which had occurred in a 1184 previous American arrangement with France, when £1,000,000 was paid by the latter country to America in respect of the claims of certain private individuals. All we know is this—that two Bills for the distribution of this arbitration money have been proposed; but neither of them has been passed by both Houses of the American Legislature. One has passed the Senate, and the other the House of Representatives. These Bills are not by any means in accordance one with the other, nor have the provisions of either of them been finally adjusted. Under these circumstances, unless gifted with second sight, it is not possible, I apprehend, for anyone to say what the ultimate amount, as determined by American legislation, will be, that is due to individuals who have claims in respect of what are called "Alabama losses." That being so, my hon. Friend will see how rapidly and how much this statement has travelled in advance of the facts, and that we can have no knowledge at present on the subject which he presumes to have been settled. But if it had bean settled, I am bound to say that the decision of the Tribunal to grant a gross sum is final, and that we have no further concern with the way in which that sum may be disposed of.