the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives;
that this report may be printed, and that a copy may be communicated
to the Secretary of State.

"(Signed) Edwin Denby,
"H. W. Palmer,
"H. D. Flood, Subcommittee,

"Adopted by the Committee of Foreign Affairs, April 7, 1910.
"Frederic L. Davis, Clerk."

I have no doubt that these two reports, first the report of the
Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate, and second, the report
of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House, taken together,
will effectually stop the application for permission to accept both
presents and decorations from foreign Governments. Indeed, I do
not think that the Secretary of State will again consent to apply
to Congress in behalf of officers who have been tendered presents
and decorations.

CHAPTER XXX
ISLE OF PINES, DANISH WEST INDIES, AND ALGECIRAS

For a number of years there was considerable controversy over the
ownership of the Isle of Pines, a small island separated from Cuba
by about thirty miles of water, containing 1200 square miles. This
dot of land was not of the slightest account to the United States,
so far as I could see; but after the treaty of peace with Spain,
a number of Americans purchased land there for the purpose of
establishing homes. When the United States withdrew from Cuba and
the Cuban Republic was established, and the flag of Cuba was extended
over the Island of Pines, those American residents protested and
insisted that the island belonged to the United States. They had
considerable ground for this contention, as Mr. Meikeljohn, when
Assistant Secretary of War, had written a number of letters in
which he stated that the Isle of Pines had been ceded to the United
States by Spain, and therefore was a part of our territory, although
attached at the time to the division of Cuba for governmental
purposes.

The treaty of peace provided in article one that Spain relinquishes
all claims of sovereignty over, and title to, Cuba; and in article
two, that Spain cedes to the United States the Island of Porto
Rico, and other islands under Spanish sovereignty in the West
Indies, and the Island of Guam in the Marianas or Ladrones.

A strict construction of the treaty of peace with Spain would
probably give the island to the United States under article two.

Cuba, however, insisted that the island was a part of Cuban territory,
but it was provided in article six of the Platt amendm