re of the case. Our efforts have since
been made the subject of appreciative and grateful recognition by
Nicaragua.

The coronation of the Czar of Russia at Moscow in May next invites the
ceremonial participation of the United States, and in accordance with
usage and diplomatic propriety our minister to the imperial court has
been directed to represent our Government on the occasion.

Correspondence is on foot touching the practice of Russian consuls
within the jurisdiction of the United States to interrogate citizens as
to their race and religious faith, and upon ascertainment thereof to
deny to Jews authentication of passports or legal documents for use in
Russia. Inasmuch as such a proceeding imposes a disability which in the
case of succession to property in Russia may be found to infringe the
treaty rights of our citizens, and which is an obnoxious invasion of
our territorial jurisdiction, it has elicited fitting remonstrance, the
result of which, it is hoped, will remove the cause of complaint. The
pending claims of sealing vessels of the United States seized in Russian
waters remain unadjusted. Our recent convention with Russia establishing
a _modus vivendi_ as to imperial jurisdiction in such cases has
prevented further difficulty of this nature.

The Russian Government has welcomed in principle our suggestion for a
_modus vivendi_, to embrace Great Britain and Japan, looking to the
better preservation of seal life in the North Pacific and Bering Sea and
the extension of the protected area defined by the Paris Tribunal to all
Pacific waters north of the thirty-fifth parallel. It is especially
noticeable that Russia favors prohibition of the use of firearms in seal
hunting throughout the proposed area and a longer closed season for
pelagic sealing.

In my last two annual messages I called the attention of the Congress
to the position we occupied as one of the parties to a treaty or
agreement by which we became jointly bound with England and Germany
to so interfere with the government and control of Samoa as in effect
to assume the management of its affairs.[23] On the 9th day of May, 1894,
I transmitted to the Senate a special message,[24] with accompanying
documents, giving information on the subject and emphasizing the opinion
I have at all times entertained, that our situation in this matter was
inconsistent with the mission and traditions of our Government, in
violation of the principles we profess, and i