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Calling attention to the claims of certain of the crew of the "Tornado"

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Inclosing extract of letter from one of the crew of the "Tornado," relative to the compensation due to them. Requests that, if money is handed over to the Board of Trade, he may be informed, as he wishes to offer some explanations as to Mr. Forbes Campbell's claim upon the fund

Requesting him to pay the 1,500l. to the Chief Clerk of the Foreign Office, and to convey the thanks of Her Majesty's Government to the Government of Spain .. Explanations to the "Tornado" indemnity, and requesting the Board of Trade to undertake the distribution of the money Requesting to be informed when he can receive the 1,500. and what is the form of receipt which he will be called upon to furnish..

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RETURN to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons, dated May 11, 1871;

for

"Further Papers, in continuance of Papers relating to the Ship Tornado' (No. 1, 1870)."

My Lord,

No. 1.

Mr. Forbes Campbell to the Earl of Clarendon.-(Received March 1.)

74, St. James's Street, London, February 28, 1870.

IN reply to the letter which Mr. Hammond, by your Lordship's direction, addressed me on the 5th instant, I have to inform your Lordship that, in consequence of the crew of the "Tornado" being now widely scattered, I have been able to acquaint only a small number of them with the offer made by the Spanish Government, and that only one individual has, as yet, intimated to me his readiness to accept the "pecuniary assistance" offered. In common with the rest of his shipmates, he regards the share which will be awarded him as an utterly inadequate indemnification for his injuries, losses, and sufferings, and he would unhesitatingly reject the offer if he could rely on Her Majesty's Government insisting on substantial redress, and enforcing the demand formally made by Lord Stanley.

I hope to be enabled before long to give, on behalf of the officers and crew, a definite answer to the inquiry contained in Mr. Hammond's letters to me of the 23rd of December and the 29th of January last, as to the acceptance or refusal of the money proposed to be paid; but meanwhile I venture, with the utmost respect, to renew the proposal contained in my letter of the 15th ultimo, to submit the case of the crew of the "Tornado to the arbitration of His Majesty the Emperor of the French, or to some other impartial umpire.

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Such a conciliatory mode of settlement would extricate the present Government of Spain from the false position in which it has been placed by the wrongful acts of Queen Isabella's Government, and by the irregularity and illegality of the whole proceedings, even according to Spanish law: for, permit me to remind your Lordship, four of the most eminent lawyers in Spain, namely, Cortina, Dean of the College of Advocates of Madrid; Gomez de la Serna, professor of law in the Central University; Manuel Alonzo Martinez, and Jozé Luis Retortillo have pronounced the whole proceedings to be null and void. An adjustment by arbitration would, moreover, be in harmony with the principles advocated by your Lordship at the Conference of Paris in 1856, and with the sentiment expressed in Her Majesty's last Message to Parliament, respecting "the growing disposition to resort to the good offices of allies in cases of international difficulties." Your Lordship is, no doubt, aware that in the analogous case of the Italian steamer "Principe Carignano," alleged to have been illegally captured off Crete in 1866 by a Turkish vessel of war, the Italian and Ottoman Governments have recently agreed to refer the claim for indemnification preferred by the former upon the latter of these Governments to the arbitration of the Swedish Minister at Constantinople. Here is a precedent which Spain may assuredly follow without any loss of dignity; and, in the event of that country arrogantly refusing, notwithstanding the extreme forbearance shown it by this country, to refer the "Tornado" case to arbitration, I submit that Her Majesty's Government would be fully warranted in enforcing the crew's well-founded claims by "reprisals, or otherwise."

With reference to that passage in Mr. Hammond's letter of the 5th instant in which he mentions that Mr. Ffrench, in a note addressed by him to the Spanish Government, spoke of fifty-two persons who comprised the crew of the Tornado;"" and, to Mr. Hammond's assumption that fifty-two was "the aggregate number of the sufferers stated in Captain Collier's affidavit of the 6th of March, 1867" (see page 55 of Part II of "Tornado" Correspondence, 1867), it is necessary for me to point out that the affidavit referred to was sworn by Mr. Collier and fifty-one of the crew, whose "money, clothes, and other B 2

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