Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell. - (Received March 31) Vera Cruz, February 26, 1862 My Lord, In my despatch of the 22nd instant I informed your Lordship that the Agreement come to between General Prim and Seņor Doblado had been sent to Mexico for the President's ratification after it had received that of the allied Commissioners. This morning a courier arrived with despatches from Seņor Doblado, informing us that the President's approbation of what had been done had been received, and that, consequently, the English, French and Spanish forces could be moved up to more healthy quarters without further delay. The French marched this morning, and our men and the Spaniards will follow them almost immediately, as the Commodore has just received from Havana mules and carts enough to transport his heavy baggage. Seņor Doblado was anxious to have an interview with General Prim and myself at Jalapa prior to his return to Mexico, but as the English mail will leave this [here] so soon, we neither of us could at present accept his invitation, but have asked him to meet us at Orizaba on the 8th of next month if he can manage to remain away so long from the capital. In a private letter to me he expresses the wish that we should give up the Vera Cruz Custom-house again to the Mexican Government, on the condition of retaining only half of its receipts, and placing an Interventor there to see that the consignments due to foreign Governments were fairly distributed amongst their Consular Agents. To this I replied that I could only consent to return the Custom-house to Mexican authorities on the distinct understanding that all consignments due to us by agreements and Treaty stipulations should be paid in monthly instalments, as was the case before the suspension of payments by the Law of the 17th of July last, and that the Consuls of the three nations should be appointed Interventor, so as to secure the due payment of what was owing to the clients of each. This would only, of course, be a temporary measure until we had, by future negotiations, secured the acknowledgement and payment of those claims to be supported by each of the three allied Powers. Seņor Doblado is anxious to get hold of the Custom-house again, more for the sake of bringing about a better feeling amongst the Mexicans towards us than from any other reason, as he thinks that by this means the friendly nature of the intervention will be proved to the satisfaction of the most sceptical amongst his political opponents who have hitherto been advocating a war of extermination against the allies. The French and Spanish Commissioners fully agree with me in seeing the advantage to be gained at present by giving up the Custom-house on the conditions above described, not only for the sake of what Seņor Doblado wishes to bring about, but also because by so doing the importations would soon largely increase, and we should thereby benefit our interests as well as those of our debtor, whose resources we ought to try and augment by every means in our power. I will report further to your Lordship with reference to this matter, which, up to the present moment, has only been treated of privately. (Signed) C. LENNOX WYKE Sir C. Wyke to Earl Russell. - (Received March 31) Vera Cruz, February 28, 1862 My Lord, As your Lordship will have seen by the inclosure in my despatch of the 22nd instant, it was agreed on in the last of the Preliminary Articles signed by General Prim and Seņor Doblado, that the Mexican flag should be hoisted here alongside those of the allies, on the same day that the first body of our troops marched into the interior. The French having started on the 26th instant, the Mexican flag was then hoisted and immediately saluted by an American frigate that arrived off Vera Cruz some days ago. When the Spaniards took possession of this place immediately after their arrival here, they found no flag flying, as the Mexicans themselves had lowered it on deserting the town; consequently there was no necessity for its being saluted by the allies when it was re-hoisted again. When all the troops shall have marched into the interior, the town will be garrisoned by 300 men from the fleet, each nation furnishing 100 men, besides 50 men for the Castle of San Juan de Ulloa, which, as I have already stated, is to be occupied in rotation by English, French, and Spaniards, under the command of an officer holding Post-Captain's rank. (Signed) C. LENNOX WYKE P.S. - I should have mentioned that the American frigate, before saluting the Mexican flag, had already saluted those of England, France and Spain, now flying here. Back to Table of Contents: Booklet No. 8, Mexico 1861-67 Back to El Dorado List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 by The South and Central Military Historians Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com