Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-12-08

atives of Great Britain, who fulfilled
tneir delicate and arduous trust with
tact and ZEAL eliciting high commenda-
tion may be allowed to make fitting
ailusion to the instance of Mr.. RAMS
den, her majesty's consul at Santiago
de Cuba, whose untimely death after
distinguished service and untiring ef-
fort during the siege of that city was
sincerely lamented.
1t will give me especial satisfaction
If shall be authorized to communicate
to you a favorable conclusion of the
pending negotiations with Great Britain
in respect to the Dominion of Canada.
It is the earnest wish of this govern
ment to remove all sources Of discord
and irritation in our relations with the
neighboring Dominion. The trade be-
tween the two countries is constantly
increasing, and it is important to both.
countries that all reasonable facilities
should be granted for its development
Annexation of Hawaii.
The annexation of Hawaii is now dis
cussed. The president says, after de-
failing the taking over of the islands
and the appointment of the Hawaiian
commission:
The commissioners having fulfilled
the mission confided to them, their re-
port will be laid before you at an early
day. It is believed that their recon-
mendations will have the earnest con-
sideration due to the magnitude of the
responsibility resting upon you to give
such shape to the relationship of those
mid Pacific lands to our home Union as
will hnnofft hnfh in fcxI
realizing the aspirations of the COM
munity that has cast it's lot with us
and elected to share our political her.
itage, while at the same time justifying
the foresight of those who for three
quarters of century have looked to
the assimilation of Hawaii as a natural
and inevitable consummation, in har-
mony with our needs and in fulfillment
of our cherished traditions.
Under the provisions of the joint res
olution the existing customs relations
of the Hawaiian Islands with the Unit
ed States and with other countries re-
main unchanged until legislation shall
otherwise provide. The consuIs of Ha-
wall here and in foreign countries con-
tinue to fulfill their commercial agen-
cies, while the United States consulate
at Honolulu is maintained for all ap-
propriate services pertaining to trade
and the revenue. 1t would be desirable
that all foreign consuls in the Hawaiian
Islands should receive new exequaturs
from this government.
The attention of congress is called to
the fact that, our consular offices
having ceased to exist in Hawaii and
being about to cease in other countries
coming under the sovereignty of the
United States, the provisions for the
relief and transportation of destitute
American seamen in these countries un-
der our consular regulations will in
consequence terminate 1t is proper.
therefore, that new legislation should
be enacted upon this subject in order to
meet the changed conditions.
The president speaks of our relations
with Mexico and suggests the amend
ment of the extradition statute so as
to give the president authority to act
where a treaty negatives the obliga-
ton TO surrender Other Mexican ques-
tions are discussed. The message then
says:
The Czar's Proposal.
The proposal of the czar for general
reduction of the vast military estab-
ishments 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 1t is contem-
plated to assemble with a view to dis
cussing the means of accomplishing 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 conceivable prospective conditions
must continue to be, in time of peace so
conspicuously less than that of the
armed powers to whom the czar's ap-
peal is especially addressed that the
question can have for us no practical
Importance save as marking an auspi-
cious step toward the betterment and
good will among them but in this view
1t behooves us as a nation rs lend coun-
tenance and aid to the beneficent prof.
ect
The newly accredited envoy of the
United States to the Ottomon porte car
ries instructions looking to the disposal
of matters in controversy with Turkey
for number of years. He is especially
charged to press for a just settlement
of our claims for indemnity by reason
of the destruction of the property of
American missionaries resident in that
country during the Armenian troubles
of 1895, as we'll as for the recognition
Of older claims of equal business.
He is also instructed to seek an ad-
justment of the dispute growing out of
the refusal of Turkey to recognize the
acquired citizenship of Ottoman born
persons naturalized in the United States
since 1869 without prior imperial con-
sent, and in the same general relation
he is directed to endeavor to bring
about solution of the question which
has more or less aeutely existed since
1869 concerning the jurisdictional rights
of the United States in matters of
criminal procedure and punishment un-
der article of the treaty of 1880. This
latter difficulty grows out of verbal
difference claimed by Turkey to be es-
sential. between the original Turkish
text and the promulgated translation
After more than two years from the
appointment of a consul of this coun-
try to Erzerum he has received his ex-
equatur.
l transmitteS to the senate on the
10th of February last information touch
ing the prohibition against the importa-
tion of fresh fruits from this country,
which had then recently been decreed
by Germany, on the ground of danger
of disseminating the San Jose scale in
sect. This precautionary measure was
justified by Germany on the score of
the drastic steps taken in several states
of the Union against the spread of the
pest, the elaborate reports of the de-
partment of agriculture being put in
evidence to show the danger to Ger
man fruit growing interests should the
scale obtain a lodgment in that coun-
try.
Temporary relief was afforded in the
case of large consignments of fruit
then on the way by inspection and adj
mission when found noninfected. Later
the prohibition was extended to dried
fruits of every kind but was relaxed SO
as to apply only to unpeeled fruit and
fruit waste. AS was to be expected, the
alarm reached to other countries. and
Switzerland has adopted a similar inhi-
bition. Efforts are In progress to induce
the German and Swiss governments to
relax the prohibition in favor of dried
fruits shown to have been cured under
circumstances rendering the existence
of animal life impossible.
The government of Greece strongly
urges the onerousness of the duty here
imposed upon the currants of that