have been made
or what route is proposed under this contingent grant, so that an
examination of the feasibility of its plans is necessarily not embraced
in the report of the Canal Commission. All these circumstances suggest
the urgency of some definite action by the Congress at this session
if the labors of the past are to be utilized and the linking of the
Atlantic and Pacific oceans by a practical waterway is to be realized.
That the construction of such a maritime highway is now more than ever
indispensable to that intimate and ready intercommunication between our
eastern and western seaboards demanded by the annexation of the Hawaiian
Islands and the prospective expansion of our influence and commerce in
the Pacific, and that our national policy now more imperatively than
ever calls for its control by this Government, are propositions which
I doubt not the Congress will duly appreciate and wisely act upon.

A convention providing for the revival of the late United States and
Chilean Claims Commission and the consideration of claims which were
duly presented to the late commission, but not considered because of the
expiration of the time limited for the duration of the commission, was
signed May 24, 1897, and has remained unacted upon by the Senate. The
term therein fixed for effecting the exchange of ratifications having
elapsed, the convention falls unless the time be extended by amendment,
which I am endeavoring to bring about, with the friendly concurrence of
the Chilean Government.

The United States has not been an indifferent spectator of the
extraordinary events transpiring in the Chinese Empire, whereby portions
of its maritime provinces are passing under the control of various
European powers; but the prospect that the vast commerce which the
energy of our citizens and the necessity of our staple productions for
Chinese uses has built up in those regions may not be prejudiced through
any exclusive treatment by the new occupants has obviated the need of
our country becoming an actor in the scene. Our position among nations,
having a large Pacific coast and a constantly expanding direct trade
with the farther Orient, gives us the equitable claim to consideration
and friendly treatment in this regard, and it will be my aim to subserve
our large interests in that quarter by all means appropriate to the
constant policy of our Government. The territories of Kiao-chow, of
Wei-hai-wei, and of Port Arthur and Tali