d Germany in 1870 in adopting such a _modus vivendi_,
and in view of the accession of the United States to those additional
articles in 1882, although the exchange of ratifications thereof still
remained uneffected, the Swiss proposal was promptly and cordially
accepted by us, and simultaneously by Spain.

This Government feels a keen satisfaction in having thus been enabled to
testify its adherence to the broadest principles of humanity even amidst
the clash of war, and it is to be hoped that the extension of the Red
Cross compact to hostilities by sea as well as on land may soon become
an accomplished fact through the general promulgation of the additional
naval Red Cross articles by the maritime powers now parties to the
convention of 1864.

The important question of the claim of Switzerland to the perpetual
cantonal allegiance of American citizens of Swiss origin has not made
hopeful progress toward a solution, and controversies in this regard
still continue.

The newly accredited envoy of the United States to the Ottoman Porte
carries instructions looking to the disposal of matters in controversy
with Turkey for a number of years. He is especially charged to press for
a just settlement of our claims for indemnity by reason of the
destruction of the property of American missionaries resident in that
country during the Armenian troubles of 1895, as well as for the
recognition of older claims of equal justness.

He is also instructed to seek an adjustment of the dispute growing
out of the refusal of Turkey to recognize the acquired citizenship of
Ottoman-born persons naturalized in the United States since 1869 without
prior imperial consent, and in the same general relation he is directed
to endeavor to bring about a solution of the question which has more or
less acutely existed since 1869 concerning the jurisdictional rights of
the United States in matters of criminal procedure and punishment under
Article IV of the treaty of 1830. This latter difficulty grows out of a
verbal difference, claimed by Turkey to be essential, between the
original Turkish text and the promulgated translation.

After more than two years from the appointment of a consul of this
country to Erzerum, he has received his exequatur.

The arbitral tribunal appointed under the treaty of February 2, 1897,
between Great Britain and Venezuela, to determine the boundary line
between the latter and the colony of British Guiana, is to convene at