COLOMBIA. REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA, DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, Bogota, September 17, 1889. SIR: As I had the honor orally to inform Your Excellency, the Government of this Republic has determined to accept the courteous invitation of the United States of America to participate in the proceedings of the International Conference to be held at Washington October 2, 1889. This Government, desirous to co-operate in all things calculated to advance the important matters to be considered, will name one or more representatives to the Conference. Requesting Your Excellency to communicate this acceptance to your Government, I have the honor to renew the assurances of my distinguished consideration. VICENTE RESTREPO. His Excellency DABNEY H. MAURY, etc., Bogota. HAYTI. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Port au Prince, Hayti, October 4, 1889. SIR: I have the honor to inform you that by a dispatch received from the Department of State of Foreign Relations of the Republic of Hayti, this day, that Mr. Arthur La Forestrie has been appointed by the Provisional Government to represent Hayti at the International Conference to assemble at Washington on the 16th instant. I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Hon. JAMES G. BLAINE, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C. THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. On the 12th of February, 1890, the Senate of the United States adopted the following resolution, which was concurred in by the House of Representatives on the 17th of March, and approved by the President: Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That the President of the United States be requested to invite the King of the Hawaiian Islands to select delegates to represent the Kingdom in the Pan American Congress now assembled at the capital of this Republic. Whereupon the following letter was addressed to the United States Minister to the Hawaiian Government by the Secretary of State: Mr. Blaine to Mr. Stevens. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 20, 1890. SIR: By direction of the President of the United States, and in his name, I have now to direct you to extend to the Government of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands a cordial invitation to be represented by such number of delegates as may seem to it convenient at the International Conference, which was convened at this capital on the 2d of October last and is now sitting. The members of that Conference are assembled for the purpose of discussing and recommending for adoption to their respective Governments some plan of arbitration for the settlement of disagreements and disputes that may hereafter arise between them, and for considering questions relating to the improvement of business intercourse and means of direct communication between the countries participating therein, and to encourage such commercial relations as will be beneficial to all and secure more extensive markets for the products of each of said countries. Where the terms of the act of Congress approved May 24, 1888, under which the original invitations to the Conference were issued it was provided that the several Governments of the Republics of Mexico, Central and South America, Hayti, Santo Domingo, and Brazil, should be invited to participate, In pursuance of the recommendation made in the Presi dent's annual message to Congress, at the opening of the current session, a concurrent resolution has been adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States, requesting the President to invite also the King of the Hawaiian Islands to select delegates to represent the Kingdom at the aforesaid Conference. In conformity with that resolution, the present invitation is thus extended at the earliest possible moment. You will lose no time in communicating this invitation to the Government of His Majesty the King of Hawaii; and in doing so you will express the pleasure it affords the President to thus put forth an additional proof of the good will which animates the Government and people of the United States towards the Hawaiian nation, and their high sense of the intimacy which subsists between the two peoples, and of which the mutually beneficial expansion is constantly desired. With a view to rendering possible the provisional attendance of the Minister of Hawaii as a Delegate during the brief period remaining within which the sessions of the Conference are likely to continue, I have addressed this invitation also to Mr. Carter, in a note of which a copy is inclosed for your information, should his attendance be possible; under the powers he may possess, and subject to the approval and ratification of his acts by the Hawaiian Government, it is trusted that His Majesty will see fit to take steps to confirm the temporary arrangements which I have so suggested in the spirit of friendly consideration. Copies of the original invitation to the International Conference and the Act of Congress in pursuance whereof the invitations were issued, are herewith inclosed, and should form part of your official communication to the Government of His Majesty. I am, sir, your obedient servant, JOHN L. STEVENS, Esq., etc., Honolulu. JAMES G. BLAINE, Mr. Blaine to Mr. Carter. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 20, 1890. SIR: I have the pleasure to acquaint you with the adoption by the Congress of the United States of a concurrent resolution, which was approved by the Senate on the 12th of February last and by the House of Representatives on the 17th instant, whereby the President is "requested to invite the King of the Hawaiian Islands to select delegates to represent the Kingdom in the Pan-American Congress now assembled at the capital of this Republic." You will recall that in the annual message of the President to the Congress at the opening of the current legislative session, in December last, he recommended that provision be made for extending to the Government of Hawaii an invitation to be represented in the International Conference then, and now, sitting at this capital, in accordance with the invitation extended to the States of Central and South America under the act approved May 24, 1888. By direction of the President, therefore, and in his name, an instruction is sent to-day to the United States minister at Honolulu to tender to the Government of the Hawaiian Islands a cordial invitation to be represented by such number of delegates as may seem to be convenient, at the International Conference which was convened in the city of Washington on the 2d of October, 1889, and which is still in session. To the end that no time may be lost, and that the Hawaiian Kingdom may, if possible, be represented in the Conference during the brief period remaining within which its sittings are likely to continue, I have the honor to repeat the invitation to you as the accredited envoy of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands. If, in your quality as minister plenipotentiary and under the instructions of your Government which you already possess, it should be competent for you to attend as a delegate of Hawaii pending ratification of your character and acts, it will afford me great pleasure to take the necessary steps to present you to the Conference in such provisional capacity, and thus forestall the probable contingency of the adjournment of the Conference before the formal acceptance by your Government and the appointment of its representatives thereat. Inclosing for your information a copy of the general invitation sent out July 13, 1888, and of the act of May 24, 1888, in which the scope of the operation of the Conference is fully set forth, I avail myself, etc., Mr. H. A. P. CARTER, etc. JAMES G. BLAINE. Mr. Carter to Mr. Blaine. HAWAIIAN LEGATION, Washington, D. C., March 25, 1890. SIR: I have the honor and pleasure to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 20th recent, in which you acquaint me with the adoption, by the Congress of the United States, of the concurrent resolution whereby the President is "requested to invite the King of the Hawaiian Islands to select delegates to represent the Kingdom in the Pan-American Congress now assembled at the capital of this Republic." You further do me the honor to inform me that by direction of the President an instruction has been sent to the United States minister at Honolulu to tender to the Government of the Hawaiian Islands a cordial invitation to be represented by such number of delegates as may seem to it convenient at the Conference now in session, and you kindly add the suggestion that if, in my quality as minister plenipotentiary and under such instructions as I already possess, it should be competent for me to attend as a delegate of Hawaii pending ratification of my character and acts, it will afford you pleasure to present me in such provisional capacity and thus forestall the probable contingency of the adjournment of the Conference before the formal acceptance of the invitation by my Government and the appointment of its representatives thereat. 563A- -3 |