hips has occurred. On March 8 last the _Allianca_, while bound
from Colon to New York, and following the customary track for vessels
near the Cuban shore, but outside the 3-mile limit, was fired upon by a
Spanish gunboat. Protest was promptly made by the United States against
this act as not being justified by a state of war, nor permissible in
respect of vessels on the usual paths of commerce, nor tolerable in
view of the wanton peril occasioned to innocent life and property.
The act was disavowed, with full expression of regret and assurance
of nonrecurrence of such just cause of complaint, while the offending
officer was relieved of his command. Military arrests of citizens of the
United States in Cuba have occasioned frequent reclamations. Where held
on criminal charges their delivery to the ordinary civil jurisdiction
for trial has been demanded and obtained in conformity with treaty
provisions, and where merely detained by way of military precaution
under a proclaimed state of siege, without formulated accusation, their
release or trial has been insisted upon. The right of American consular
officers in the island to prefer protests and demands in such cases
having been questioned by the insular authority, their enjoyment of the
privilege stipulated by treaty for the consuls of Germany was claimed
under the most-favored-nation provision of our own convention and was
promptly recognized.

The long-standing demand of Antonio Maximo Mora against Spain has at
last been settled by the payment, on the 14th of September last, of the
sum originally agreed upon in liquidation of the claim. Its distribution
among the parties entitled to receive it has proceeded as rapidly as the
rights of those claiming the fund could be safely determined.

The enforcement of differential duties against products of this country
exported to Cuba and Puerto Rico prompted the immediate claim on our
part to the benefit of the minimum tariff of Spain in return for the
most favorable treatment permitted by our laws as regards the production
of Spanish territories. A commercial arrangement was concluded in
January last securing the treatment so claimed.

Vigorous protests against excessive fines imposed on our ships and
merchandise by the customs officers of these islands for trivial errors
have resulted in the remission of such fines in instances where the
equity of the complaint was apparent, though the vexatious practice has
not been wholly di