This Government
holds that until the establishment of a treaty upon this subject the
Venezuelan Government must continue to make the payments provided for
in the convention of 1866.
There is ground for, believing that the dispute growing out of the
unpaid obligations due from Venezuela to France will be satisfactorily
adjusted. The French cabinet has proposed a basis of settlement which
meets my approval, but as it involves a recasting of the annual quotas
of the foreign debt it has been deemed advisable to submit the proposal
to the judgment of the cabinets of Berlin, Copenhagen, The Hague,
London, and Madrid.
At the recent coronation of His Majesty King Kalakaua this Government
was represented both diplomatically and by the formal visit of a vessel
of war.
The question of terminating or modifying the existing reciprocity treaty
with Hawaii is now before Congress. I am convinced that the charges of
abuses and frauds under that treaty have been exaggerated, and I renew
the suggestion of last year's message that the treaty be modified
wherever its provisions have proved onerous to legitimate trade between
the two countries.
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