of
outstanding claims between the two countries, except the Mora claim,
which, having been long ago adjusted, now only awaits payment as
stipulated, and of course it could not be included in the proposed
convention. It was hoped that this offer would remove parliamentary
obstacles encountered by the Spanish Government in providing payment of
the Mora indemnity. I regret to say that no definite reply to this offer
has yet been made and all efforts to secure payment of this settled
claim have been unavailing.

In my last annual message I adverted to the claim on the part of Turkey
of the right to expel as persons undesirable and dangerous Armenians
naturalized in the United States and returning to Turkish
jurisdiction.[9] Numerous questions in this relation have arisen. While
this Government acquiesces in the asserted right of expulsion, it will
not consent that Armenians may be imprisoned or otherwise punished for
no other reason than having acquired without imperial consent American
citizenship.

Three of the assailants of Miss Melton, an American teacher in Mosul,
have been convicted by the Ottoman courts, and I am advised that an
appeal against the acquittal of the remaining five has been taken by the
Turkish prosecuting officer.

A convention has been concluded with Venezuela for the arbitration of a
long-disputed claim growing out of the seizure of certain vessels the
property of citizens of the United States. Although signed, the treaty
of extradition with Venezuela is not yet in force, owing to the
insistence of that Government that when surrendered its citizens shall
in no case be liable to capital punishment.

The rules for the prevention of collisions at sea which were framed
by the maritime conference held in this city in 1889, having been
concurrently incorporated in the statutes of the United States and
Great Britain, have been announced to take effect March 1, 1895, and
invitations have been extended to all maritime nations to adhere to
them. Favorable responses have thus far been received from Austria,
France, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden.

In my last annual message I referred briefly to the unsatisfactory state
of affairs in Samoa under the operation of the Berlin treaty as signally
illustrating the impolicy of entangling alliances with foreign
powers,[10] and on May 9, 1894, in response to a resolution of the
Senate, I sent a special message [11] and documents to that body on the
same subject, whic