UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 





penditures of Spain for betterments and (o admit 

 Spanish merchandise and Spanish ships to t lie- 

 Philippines on the same terms as those of the 

 United States, declaring it to be the policy of the 

 United States to maintain in those islands'an open 

 door for the commerce of all nations. The Ameri- 

 can commissioners offered further to insert in the 

 treaty a provision for the mutual relinquishment of 

 all American and Spanish claims for indemnity, 

 either national or private, that had arisen since the 

 opening of hostilities. That these proposals were 

 final and irreducible was conveyed in a hope ex- 

 pressed by the American commissioners that their 

 acceptance, together with that of the stipulations 

 respecting Cuba and Puerto Rico, the other islands 

 of Spain in the West Indies and Guam, in the form 

 which had been provisionally agreed, would be sig- 

 nified on or before Nov. 28. On that date the ac- 

 ceptance was given, accompanied by a memoran- 

 dum setting forth that, compromise and arbitration 

 having been rejected and a prompt answer made 

 the condition of the continuation of negotiations, the 

 Madrid Government had instructed its represent- 

 atives to accept the victor's terms, however harsh, 

 to save further loss and injury to Spain, recogniz- 

 ing the impossibility of further resisting her power- 

 ful antagonist. On Dec. 1 the Spanish commission 

 made a proposition to constitute a technical com- 

 mission, an American, an Englishman, and a 

 Frenchman to be selected by the United States, a 

 Spaniard, an Englishman, and a Frenchman by 

 Spain, and a German by both governments who 

 should investigate the explosion of the " Maine." 

 When the American commissioners rejected this 

 proposition and the President afterward in his an- 

 nual message spoke of the catastrophe as suspicious, 

 the Spanish commissioners in their memorandum 

 protested that the United States refused to Spain 

 the right possessed by a criminal of defending him- 

 self, and appealed to the world to decide whether 

 those are responsible who desire the truth or those 

 refusing to seek it. 



The treaty was finally drawn up on Dec. 10 and 

 was signed the same evening. The text is given 

 below : 



ARTICLE I. Spain relinquishes all claim of sov- 

 ereignty over and title to Cuba. 



And as the island is, upon its evacuation by 

 Spain, to be occupied by the United States, the 

 United States will, so long as such occupation shall 

 last, assume and discharge the obligations that may 

 under international law result from the fact of its 

 occupation for the protection of life and property. 



ART. II. Spain cedes to the United States the 

 island of Puerto Rico and other islands now under 

 Spanish sovereignty in the West Indies, and the 

 island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones. 



ART. III. Spain cedes to the United States the 

 archipelago known as the Philippine Islands, and 

 comprehending the islands lying within the follow- 

 ing lines : 



A line running from west to east along or near 

 the twentieth parallel .of north latitude, and through 

 the middle of the navigable channel of Bachti, 

 from the one hundred and eighteenth (118th) to 

 the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) degree 

 meridian of longitude east of Greenwich, thence 

 along the one hundred and twenty-seventh (127th) 

 degree meridian of longitude east of Greenwich to 

 the parallel of four degrees and fortv-five minutes 

 (4:45) north latitude, thence along the parallel of 

 four degrees and forty-five minutes (4:45) north 

 latitude to its intersection with the meridian of 

 longitude one hundred and nineteen degrees and 

 thirty-five minutes (119:35) east of Greenwich, 

 thence along the meridian of longitude one hun- 

 dred and nineteen degrees and thirty-five minutes 



