The total amount appropriated up to this time for the four vessels is $3,546,941.41.  A sum not exceeding $3,838,769.62, including $866,725 for four powerful rifled cannon and for the remainder of the ordnance outfit, will complete and equip them for service.  Of the sum required, only two millions need be appropriated for the next fiscal year.  It is not expected that one of the monitors will be a match for the heaviest broadside ironclads which certain other Governments have constructed at a cost of four or five millions each, but they will be armored vessels of an approved and useful type, presenting limited surfaces for the shot of an enemy, and possessed of such seagoing capacity and offensive power as fully to answer our immediate necessities.  Their completion having been determined upon in the recent legislation of Congress, no time should be lost in accomplishing the necessary object.

The Gun Foundry Board, appointed by direction of Congress, consisting of three army and three navy officers, has submitted its report, duly transmitted on the 20th day of February, 1884, recommending that the Government should promote the production at private steel works of the required material for heavy cannon, and that two Government factories, one for the Army and one for the Navy, should be established for the fabrication of guns from such material.  An early consideration of the report is recommended, together with such action as will enable the Government to construct its ordnance upon its own territory and so to provide the armaments demanded by considerations which concern the national safety and honor.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 1, 1884.

To the House of Representatives:

In response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of January 15, 1884, requesting the President to forward to the House information, including reports from consuls and others, concerning the undervaluation, false classification, and other irregular practices in the importation of foreign merchandise, and to recommend what legislation, if any, is needed to prevent such frauds on the revenue, I have the honor to transmit herewith a letter of the Secretary of the Treasury of the 28th ultimo, inclosing a draft of a bill on the subject, together with copies of reports taken from the files of the Treasury Department concerning the information desired.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 1, 1884.

To the House of Representatives:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying papers, furnished in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives of January 16, 1884, calling for information as to the payments made by Spain in accordance with the terms of its treaty with the United States concluded February 17, 1834.

CHESTER A. ARTHUR.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 2, 1884.