The recommendations of this report have my most cordial approval, and I urge upon the Congress such timely provision for this great international enterprise as will fittingly respond to the widely testified wish and expectation of our inventors and producers that they may have adequate opportunity again, as in the past, to fortify the important positions that have won in the world’s competitive fields of discovery and industry.  Nor are the traditional friendships of the United States and France and the mutual advantages to accrue from their enlarged commercial intercourse less important factors than the individual interests to be fostered by renewed participation in a great French exposition, especially when it is remembered that the present display is projected with a degree of completeness and on a scale of magnificence beyond any of the European exhibitions that have marked the close of the century.

It is proper that I should emphasize the need of early action, for if the present session pass without suitable provision being made, the postponement of the matter for nearly a year longer could not but operate greatly to the disadvantage of the United States, in view of the elaborate preparations already making by other governments, and of the danger that further delay may result in an inadequate allotment of space to this country as well as an incomplete organization of the American exhibit.

William McKINLEY.

Executive Mansion, Washington, May 3, 1897.

To the Congress of the United States: 

I transmit a report from the Secretary of State reciting the circumstances attending the lynching at Hahnville, La., on the night of August 8, 1896, of three Italian subjects, named Salvatore Arena, Giuseppe Venturelia, and Lorenzo Salardino, and I recommend the appropriation by Congress, without admitting the liability of the Government of the United States in the premises, of the sum of $6,000, to be paid by the Secretary of State to the Government of Italy, and to be distributed by that government in such manner as it may deem proper among the heirs of the three Italian subjects above named.

William McKINLEY.

Executive Mansion, Washington, May 13, 1897.

To the Senate of the United States: 

I transmit herewith, in response to the Senate resolution of April 22, 1897, addressed to the Secretary of State, a report from that officer relative to diplomatic and consular reports on postal savings banks systems in foreign countries.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 17, 1897.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States: 

Official information from our consuls in Cuba establishes the fact that a large number of American citizens in the island are in a state of destitution, suffering for want of food and medicines.  This applies particularly to the rural districts of the central and eastern parts.