other domestic functions of government, and foreign extra-territorial rights being renounced.

Comprehensive codes of civil and criminal procedure according to western methods, public instruction, patents and copyrights, municipal administration, including jurisdiction over the former foreign settlements, customs tariffs and procedure, public health, and other administrative measures have been proclaimed. The working of the new system has given rise to no material complaints on the part of the American citizens or interests-a circumstance which attests the ripe consideration with which the change has been prepared.

Valuable assistance was rendered by the Japanese authorities to the United States' transport ship Morgan City while stranded at Kobé. Permission has been granted to land and pasture army horses at Japanese ports of call on the way to the Philippine Islands. These kindly evidences of good-will are highly appreciated.

The Japanese Government has shown a lively interest in the proposition of the Pacific Cable Company to add to its projected cable lines to Hawaii, Guam, and the Philippines a branch connection with the coast of Japan. It would It would be a gratifying consummation were the utility of the contemplated scheme enhanced by bringing Japan and the United States into direct telegraphic relation.

Without repeating the observations of my Special Message of the 10th February, 1899, concerning the necessity of a cable to Manila, I respectfully invite attention to it.

I recommend that, in case the Congress should not take measures to bring about this result by direct action of the Government, the Postmaster-General be authorized to invite competitive bids for the establishment of a cable; the Company making the best responsible bid to be awarded the contract; the successful Company to give ample bonds to insure the completion of the work within a reasonable time.

The year has been marked by constant increase in the intimacy of our relations with Mexico, and in the magnitude of mutually advantageous interchanges. This Government has omitted no opportunity to show its strong desire to develop and perpetuate the ties of cordiality now so long happily unbroken.

Following the termination on the 20th January, 1899, by Mexico of the Convention of Extradition of the 11th December, 1861, a new Treaty more in accordance with the ascertained needs of both countries was signed 22nd February, 1899, and exchanged in the city of Mexico on the 22nd April last. Its operation thus far has been effective and satisfactory. A recent case has served to test the application of Article IV, which provides that neither Party shall be

bound to deliver up its own citizens, but that the Executive authority of each shall have the power to deliver them up if in its discretion it be deemed proper to do so.

The extradition of Mrs. Mattie Rich, a citizen of the United States, charged with homicide committed in Mexico, was after mature consideration directed by me in the conviction that the ends of justice would be thereby subserved. Similar action, on appropriate occasion, by the Mexican Executive will not only tend to accomplish the desire of both Governments that grave crimes go not unpunished, but also to repress lawlessness along the border of the two countries. The new Treaty stipulates that neither Government shall assume jurisdiction in the punishment of crimes committed exclusively within the territory of the other. This will obviate in future the embarrassing controversies which have heretofore arisen through Mexico's assertion of a claim to try and punish an American citizen for an offence committed within the jurisdiction of the United States.

The International Water Boundary Commission, organized by the Convention of the 1st March, 1889, for the adjustment of questions affecting the Rio Grande frontier, has not yet completed its labours. A further extension of its term for one year, until the 24th December, 1899, was effected by a Convention signed on the 2nd December, 1898, and exchanged and proclaimed in February last.

An invitation extended to the President of Mexico to visit Chicago in October, on the occasion of laying the corner stone of the United States' Government building in that city, was cordially accepted by him, with the necessary consent of the Mexican Congress, but the illness of a member of his family prevented his attendance. The Minister of Foreign Relations, however, came as the personal representative of President Diaz, and in that high character was duly honoured.

Claims growing out of the seizure of American sealing-vessels in Behring Sea have been under discussion with the Government of Russia for several years, with the recent happy result of an agree ment to submit them to the decision of a single Arbitrator. By this act Russia affords proof of her adherence to the beneficent principle of arbitration which her Plenipotentiaries conspicuously favoured at the Hague Disarmament Conference when it was advocated by the Representatives of the United States.

A suggestion for a permanent exposition of our products and manufactures in Russia, although not yet fully shaped, has been so cordially welcomed by the Imperial Government that it may not inaptly take a fitting place in whatever legislation the Congress may adopt looking to enlargement of our commercial opportunities abroad.

Important events have occurred in the Samoan Islands. The election, according to the laws and customs of Samoa, of a successor to the late King, Malietoa Laupepa, developed a contest as to the validity of the result, which issue, by the terms of the General Act, was to be decided by the Chief Justice. Upon his rendering a judgment in favour of Malietoa Tanu, the rival Chief, Mataafa, took up arms. The active intervention of American and British war ships became imperative to restore order, at the cost of sanguinary encounters. In this emergency a Joint Commission of Representatives of the United States, Germany, and Great Britain was sent to Samoa to investigate the situation and provide a temporary remedy. By its active efforts a peaceful solution was reached for the time being, the Kingship being abolished and a Provisional Government established. Recommendations unanimously made by the Commission for a permanent adjustment of the Samoan question were taken under consideration by the three Powers parties to the General Act. But the more they were examined the more evident it became that a radical change was necessary in the relations of the Powers to Samoa.

The inconveniences and possible perils of the tripartite scheme of supervision and control of the Samoan group by Powers having little interest in common in that quarter beyond commercial rivalry had been once more emphasized by the recent events. The suggested remedy of the Joint Commission, like the scheme it aimed to replace, amounted to what had been styled a tridominium, being the exercise of the functions of sovereignty by an unanimous agreement of three Powers. The situation has become far more intricate and embarrassing from every point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894, summed up its perplexities and condemned the participation in it of the United States.

The arrangement under which Samoa was administered had proved impracticable and unacceptable to all the Powers concerned. To withdraw from the Agreement and abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain would not be compatible with our interests in the archipelago. To relinquish our rights in the harbour of Pago Pago, the best anchorage in the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been leased to the United States in 1878 by the first foreign Treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to be thought of either as regards the needs of our navy or the interests of our growing commerce with the East. We could not have considered any proposition for the abrogation of the tripartite control which did not confirm us in all our rights and safeguard all our national interests in the islands.

Our views commended themselves to the other Powers. A satisfactory arrangement was concluded between the Governments

of Germany and of England, by virtue of which England retired from Samoa in view of compensations in other directions, and both Powers renounced in favour of the United States all their rights and claims over and in respect to that portion of the group lying to the east of the 171st degree of west longitude, embracing the Islands of Tutuila, Ofoo, Olosenga, and Manua. I transmit to the Senate, for its constitutional action thereon, a Convention, which, besides the provisions above mentioned, also guarantees us the same privileges and conditions in respect to commerce and commercial vessels in all of the islands of Samoa as those possessed by Germany.*

Claims have been preferred by white residents of Samoa on account of injuries alleged to have been suffered through the acts of the Treaty Governments in putting down the late disturbances. A Convention has been made between the three Powers for the investigation and settlement of these claims by a neutral Arbitrator, to which the attention of the Senate will be invited.

My Annual Message of last year was necessarily devoted in great part to a consideration of the Spanish war and of the results it wrought and the conditions it imposed for the future. I am gratified to announce that the Treaty of Peace has restored friendly relations between the two Powers. Effect has been given to its most important provisions. The evacuation of Porto Rico having already been accomplished on the 18th October, 1898, nothing remained necessary there but to continue the provisional military control of the island until the Congress should enact a suitable Government for the ceded territory. Of the character and scope of the measures to that end I shall treat in another part of this Message.

The withdrawal of the authority of Spain from the Island of Cuba was effected by the 1st January, so that the full re-establishment of peace found the relinquished territory held by us in trust for the inhabitants, maintaining, under the direction of the Executive, such government and control therein as should conserve public order, restore the productive conditions of peace so long disturbed by the instability and disorder which prevailed for the greater part of the preceding three decades, and build up that tranquil development of the domestic state whereby alone can be realized the high purpose, as proclaimed in the Joint Resolution adopted by the Congress on the 19th April, 1898, by which the United States disclaimed any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over Cuba, except for the pacification thereof, and asserted its determination when that was accomplished to leave the government and control of the island to its people. The pledge contained in its Resolution is of the highest honourable obligation, and must be sacredly kept.

* See page 75.

I believe that substantial progress has been made in this direction. All the administrative measures adopted in Cuba have aimed to fit it for a regenerated existence by enforcing the supremacy of law and justice; by placing wherever practicable the machinery of administration in the hands of the inhabitants; by instituting needed sanitary reforms; by spreading education; by fostering industry and trade; by inculcating public morality, and, in short, by taking every rational step to aid the Cuban people to attain to that plane of self-conscious respect and self-reliant unity which fits an enlightened community for self-government within its own sphere, while enabling it to fulfil all outward obligations.

This nation has assumed before the world a grave responsibility for the future good government of Cuba. We have accepted a trust the fulfilment of which calls for the sternest integrity of purpose and the exercise of the highest wisdom. The new Cuba yet to arise from the ashes of the past must needs be bound to us by ties of singular intimacy and strength. if its enduring welfare is to be assured. Whether those ties shall be organic or conventional, the destinies of Cuba are in some rightful form and manner irrevocably linked with our own, but how and how far is for the future to determine in the ripeness of events. Whatever be the outcome, we must see to it that free Cuba be a reality, not a name, a perfect entity, not a hasty experiment bearing within itself the elements of failure. Our mission, to accomplish which we took up the wager of battle, is not to be fulfilled by turning adrift any loosely framed commonwealth to face the vicissitudes which too often attend weaker States whose natural wealth and abundant resources are offset by the incongruities of their political organization and the recurring occasions for internal rivalries to sap their strength and dissipate their energies. The greatest blessing which can come to Cuba is the restoration of her agricultural and industrial prosperity, which will give employment to idle men and re-establish the pursuits of peace. This is her chief and immediate need.

On the 19th August last an order was made for the taking of the census in the island, to be completed on the 30th November. By the Treaty of Peace the Spanish people on the island have until the 11th April, 1900, to elect whether they will remain citizens of Spain or become citizens of Cuba. Until then it cannot be definitely ascertained who shall be entitled to participate in the formation of the Government of Cuba. By that time the results of the census will have been tabulated, and we shall proceed to provide for elections which will commit the municipal Governments of the island to the officers elected by the people. The experience thus acquired will prove of great value in the formation of a repre