CONGRESS. (PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE.) 



189 



tions it is necessary to extend the life of. the 

 commission, which expires Dec. 23 next. 



The coronation of the young Queen of the 

 Netherlands was made the occasion of fitting con- 

 gratulations. 



The claim of Victor H. McCord against Peru, 

 which for a number of years has heen pressed by 

 this Government, and has on several occasions 

 attracted the attention of the Congress, has been 

 satisfactorily adjusted. A protocol was signed 

 May 17, 1898, whereby, the fact of liability being 

 admitted, the question of the amount to be 

 awarded was submitted to the Chief Justice of 

 Canada as sole arbitrator. His award sets the 

 indemnity due the claimant at $40,000. 



The Government of Peru has given the pre- 

 scribed notification 1 of its intention to abrogate 

 the treaty of friendship, commerce, and naviga- 

 tion concluded with this country Aug. 31, 1887. 

 As that treaty contains many important pro- 

 visions necessary to the maintenance of com- 

 merce and good relations, which could with diffi- 

 culty be replaced by the negotiation of renewed 

 provisions within the brief twelve months inter- 

 vening before the treaty terminates, I have in- 

 vited suggestions by Peru as to the particular 

 provisions it is desired to annul, in the hope of 

 reaching an arrangement whereby the remaining 

 articles may be provisionally saved. 



His Majesty the Czar having announced his 

 purpose to raise the imperial Russian mission at 

 this capital to the rank of an embassy, I re- 

 sponded, under the authority conferred by the 

 act of March 3, 1893, by commissioning and ac- 

 crediting the actual representative at St. Peters- 

 burg in the capacity of ambassador extraordinary 

 and plenipotentiary. The Russian ambassador to 

 this country has since presented his credentials. 



The proposal of the Czar for a general reduc- 

 tion of the vast military establishments that 

 weigh so heavily upon many peoples in time of 

 peace was communicated to this Government with 

 an earnest invitation to be represented in the 

 conference which it is contemplated to assemble 

 with a view to discussing the means of accom- 

 plishing so desirable a result. His Majesty was 

 at once informed of the cordial sympathy of this 

 Government with the principle involved in his 

 exalted proposal and of the readiness of the 

 United States to take part in the conference. 

 The active military force of the United States, 

 as measured by our population, territorial area, 

 and taxable wealth, is, and under any conceiv- 

 able prospective conditions must continue to be, 

 in time of peace so conspicuously less than that 

 of the armed powers to whom the Czar's appeal 

 is especially addressed that the question can have 

 for us no practical importance save as marking 

 an auspicious step toward the betterment of the 

 condition of the modern peoples and the cultiva- 

 tion of peace and good will among them; but in 

 this view it behooves us as a nation to lend coun- 

 tenance and aid to the beneficent project. 



The claims of owners of American sealing ves- 

 sels for seizure by Russian cruisers in Bering Sea 

 are being pressed to a settlement. The equities 

 of the cases justify the expectation that a meas- 

 ure of reparation will eventually be accorded in 

 harmony with precedent and in the light of the 

 proved facts. 



The recommendation made in my special mes- 

 sage of April 27 last is renewed, that appropria- 

 tion be made to reimburse the master and owners 

 of the Russian bark Hans for wrongful arrest 

 of the master and detention of the vessel in Feb- 

 ruary, 1896, by officers of the United States dis- 

 trict court for the southern district of Missis- 



sippi. The papers accompanying my said message 

 make out a most meritorious claim, and justify 

 the urgency with which it has been presented by 

 the Government of Russia. 



Malietoa Laupepa, King of Samoa, died on Aug. 

 22 last. According to Article I of the general act 

 of Berlin, " his successor shall be duly elected ac- 

 cording to the laws and customs of Samoa." 



Arrangements having been agreed upon between 

 the signatories of the general act for the return 

 of Mataafa and the other exiled Samoan chiefs, 

 they were brought from Jaluit by a German war 

 vessel and landed at Apia on Sept. 18 last. 



Whether the death of Malietoa and the return 

 of his old-time rival Mataafa will add to the un- 

 desirable complications which the execution of 

 the tripartite general act has heretofore devel- 

 oped remains to be seen. The efforts of this Gov- 

 ernment will, as heretofore, be addressed toward 

 a harmonious and exact fulfillment of the terms 

 of the international engagement to which the 

 United States became a party in 1889. 



The Cheek claim against Siam, after some five 

 years of controversy, has been adjusted by arbi- 

 tration, under an agreement signed July 6, 1897, 

 an award of 706,721 ticals (about $187,987.78), 

 with release of the Cheek estate from mortgage 

 claims, having been rendered March 21, 1898, in 

 favor of the claimant, by the arbitrator, Sir 

 Nicholas John Hannen, British chief justice for 

 China and Japan. 



An envoy from Siam has been accredited to this 

 Government and has presented his credentials. 



Immediately upon the outbreak of the war 

 with Spain the Swiss Government, fulfilling the 

 high mission it has deservedly assumed as the 

 patron of the International Red Cross, proposed 

 to the United States and Spain that they should 

 severally recognize and carry into execution, as 

 a modus Vivendi, during the continuance of hos- 

 tilities, the additional articles proposed by the 

 international conference of Geneva, Oct. 20, 1868, 

 extending the effects of the existing Red Cross 

 convention of 1864 to the conduct of naval war. 

 Following the example set by France and Ger- 

 many in 1870 in adopting such a modus Vivendi, 

 and in view of the accession of the United States 

 to those additional articles in 1882, although the 

 exchange of ratifications thereof still remained 

 uneffected, the Swiss proposal was promptly and 

 cordially accepted by us, and simultaneously by 

 Spain. 



This Government feels a keen satisfaction in 

 having thus been enabled to testify its adherence 

 to the broadest principles of humanity even amid 

 the clash of war, and it is to be hoped that the 

 extension of the Red Cross compact to hostilities 

 by sea as well as on land may soon become an 

 accomplished fact through the general promulga- 

 tion of the additional naval Red Cross articles 

 by the maritime powers now parties to the con- 

 vention of 1864. 



The important question of the claim of Switzer- 

 land to the perpetual cantonal allegiance of 

 American citizens of Swiss origin has not made 

 hopeful progress toward a solution, and contro- 

 versies in this regard still continue. 



The newly accredited envoy of the United 

 States to the Ottoman Porte carries instructions 

 looking to the disposal of matters in controversy 

 with Turkey for a number of years. He is espe- 

 cially charged to press for a just settlement of 

 our claims for indemnity by reason of the de- 

 struction of the property of American mission- 

 aries resident in that country during the Arme- 

 nian troubles of 1895, as well as for the recogni- 

 tion of older claims of equal justness. 



