re under consideration. In the meantime,
the views of the Congress upon the general subject, in the light of the
report of the Commission appointed to examine the comparative merits of
the various trans-Isthmian ship-canal projects, may be awaited.

I commend to the early attention of the Senate the Convention with Great
Britain to facilitate the construction of such a canal and to remove any
objection which might arise out of the Convention commonly called the
Clayton-Bulwer Treaty.

The long-standing contention with Portugal, growing out of the seizure
of the Delagoa Bay Railway, has been at last determined by a favorable
award of the tribunal of arbitration at Berne, to which it was
submitted. The amount of the award, which was deposited in London
awaiting arrangements by the Governments of the United States and Great
Britain for its disposal, has recently been paid over to the two
Governments.

A lately signed Convention of Extradition with Peru as amended by the
Senate has been ratified by the Peruvian Congress.

Another illustration of the policy of this Government to refer
international disputes to impartial arbitration is seen in the agreement
reached with Russia to submit the claims on behalf of American sealing
vessels seized in Bering Sea to determination by Mr. T.M.C. Asser, a
distinguished statesman and jurist of the Netherlands.

Thanks are due to the Imperial Russian Government for the kindly aid
rendered by its authorities in eastern Siberia to American missionaries
fleeing from Manchuria.

Satisfactory progress has been made toward the conclusion of a general
treaty of friendship and intercourse with Spain, in replacement of the
old treaty, which passed into abeyance by reason of the late war. A new
convention of extradition is approaching completion, and I should be
much pleased were a commercial arrangement to follow. I feel that we
should not suffer to pass any opportunity to reaffirm the cordial ties
that existed between us and Spain from the time of our earliest
independence, and to enhance the mutual benefits of that commercial
intercourse which is natural between the two countries.

By the terms of the Treaty of Peace the line bounding the ceded
Philippine group in the southwest failed to include several small
islands lying westward of the Sulus, which have always been recognized
as under Spanish control. The occupation of Sibutu and Cagayan Sulu by
our naval forces elicited a claim on th