or us should be
preserved. Our treaty is now terminable on one year's notice, but
propositions to abrogate it would be, in my judgment, most ill advised.
The paramount influence we have there acquired, once relinquished, could
only with difficulty be regained, and a valuable ground of vantage for
ourselves might be converted into a stronghold for our commercial
competitors. I earnestly recommend that the existing treaty stipulations
be extended for a further term of seven years. A recently signed treaty
to this end is now before the Senate.

The importance of telegraphic communication between those islands and
the United States should not be overlooked.

The question of a general revision of the treaties of Japan is again
under discussion at Tokyo. As the first to open relations with that
Empire, and as the nation in most direct commercial relations with
Japan, the United States have lost no opportunity to testify their
consistent friendship by supporting the just claims of Japan to autonomy
and independence among nations.

A treaty of extradition between the United States and Japan, the first
concluded by that Empire, has been lately proclaimed.

The weakness of Liberia and the difficulty of maintaining effective
sovereignty over its outlying districts have exposed that Republic to
encroachment. It can not be forgotten that this distant community is
an offshoot of our own system, owing its origin to the associated
benevolence of American citizens, whose praiseworthy efforts to create
a nucleus of civilization in the Dark Continent have commanded respect
and sympathy everywhere, especially in this country. Although a formal
protectorate over Liberia is contrary to our traditional policy, the
moral right and duty of the United States to assist in all proper
ways in the maintenance of its integrity is obvious, and has been
consistently announced during nearly half a century. I recommend that in
the reorganization of our Navy a small vessel, no longer found adequate
to our needs, be presented to Liberia, to be employed by it in the
protection of its coastwise revenues.

The encouraging development of beneficial and intimate relations between
the United States and Mexico, which has been so marked within the past
few years, is at once the occasion of congratulation and of friendly
solicitude. I urgently renew my former representation of the need of
speedy legislation by Congress to carry into effect the reciprocity
com