stefansson-wrangel-09-37-024

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that the island was a dependency of Hayti, and that it had
been occupied by citizens of that country. On the other hand,
the island was certainly uninhabited when the Americans arrived,
and there is some evidence that the whole attitude of the Haytien
government was the result of jealousy on the part of an English
competitor of Mr. Duncan’s in Jamaica.

Under such ah array of facts it seems that the position of
the American government was justified. This example has been
gone into at some detail in order to show the various factors
which must enter into the decision of such a question -- factors
which are all-important if they exist at all, but whose existence
is questionable. As, for example: it would be decisive of the
controversy if it could be shown that Hayti had administered the
island and had never abandoned it. This, however, as I have
tried to point out, can be neither proved or disproved conclus-
ively.

The question was still being agitated by Hayti in 1873,
when, according to Moore’s Digest -- the correspondence is not
in the U.S. Foreign Relations -- Mr. Fish, the Secretary of'
State, still maintained the original position of the United
States on the question. In U.S. Foreign Relations for 1873,
vol.l, 477, the question is mentioned in the message of the
President of Hayti. So far as can be discovered, however, the
question has never been finally settled.

In S. Ex. Doc. 10, 36th Congress, second session, is found
the correspondence concerning Aves Island. This correspondence
covers 472 pages. When reduced to its lowest terms, however, it