Earl Russell to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty Foreign Office, May 17, 1862 My Lords, The reports from Commodore Dunlop of the 11th of April, inclosed in the letter from your Lordship's Secretary of the 14th instant, as well as those received from Sir Charles Wyke up to the 12th of April, appear to throw some doubt upon the point whether the Commodore will remain at Vera Cruz after the departure of Sir Charles Wyke and the British Marines, and so be in a position to carry out the instructions which your Lordships will have sent to him in consequence of my letters of the 5th and 8th instant. From the tenour of those reports, however, it seems clear that all joint action had ceased between the English and Spanish Commissioners, on the one hand, and the French Commissioners on the other, and there does not seem any probability of its having been renewed, at all events as far as the English Commissioners are concerned, without further instructions from home. It appears, moreover, that the cessation of such joint action has been brought about by the occurrence of the contingency, adverted to in my letter of the 5th instant, of the intended advance of the French troops on Mexico; and therefore, as I stated in my same letter, the execution of the Convention of October 31, 1861, must be suspended, and Vice Admiral Milne should now be informed that without further instructions it must remain so. But Vice Admiral Milne must hold himself in readiness to carry out any instructions which may at any time hereafter be sent to him, in reference to the affairs of Mexico. I inclose, for your Lordships' information, a copy of an instruction which I have addressed to Sir Charles Wyke, and to whom I have also sent leave to return from New York to Europe for three months for the recovery of his health. (Signed) RUSSELL 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