us misapprehension.

"The department has been advised that the protocol of January 20
was given out for publication by the Dominican Government in order
to calm the popular mind on account of its uncertainty as to the
character of negotiations which were actually being carried on
between the two Governments.

"(Signed) John Hay."

From 1865, until the time that the United States assumed the
collection of customs, conditions in Santo Domingo were about as
bad as they could be in every respect. One revolution succeeded
another. There had been twenty-six different Administrations since
1865, only one of which was brought about by means of a regular
election. Most of the others were caused by revolutions, assassination,
forced resignations, and a general condition of anarchy. Debt
after debt, bond issue after bond issue, piled up, each Administration
seemingly bent only on seeing how much actual cash could be raised,
utterly regardless of obligations assumed. None of the principal
and only a trifling portion of the interest were paid, and it seems
that the different Administrations never had any intention of
liquidating the obligations of the Republic. The principal portion
of the bonds was held by European creditors.

But finally the Santo Domingo Improvement Company, an American
corporation, succeeded as the fiscal agents of the Republic, to
float its bond issues. The improvement company was displayed, and
its claim was settled for four million, five hundred thousand
dollars. Then a protocol was entered into between the United States
and Santo Domingo by which the manner of payment was submitted to
arbitration, our arbitrators being Judge George Gray and John G.
Carlisle. An award was rendered providing that an agent of the
United States should take possession of certain custom houses, in
order to pay a debt which the Government of Santo Domingo had
acknowledged to be due an American corporation.

This did not satisfy foreign creditors, French, Belgian and Italian,
who had actually been given, by an agreement with Santo Domingo,
the right to collect revenues at certain custom houses. Santo
Domingo appealed to the United States and the foreign Governments
threatened that if the United States did not enforce some remedial
plan, they would be compelled to take action for the relief of
their own citizens, whose claims aggregated twenty million dollars.
Italian warships were already in Santo Domingo waters r