WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, March 27, 1900.

To the House of Representatives: 

In response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of March 24, 1900, reading as follows: 

WHEREAS the commercial community of the United States is deeply interested in ascertaining the conditions which are to govern trade in such parts of the Chinese Empire as are claimed by various foreign powers to be within their “areas of interest”; and

  WHEREAS bills are now pending before both Houses of Congress for the
  dispatch of a mission to China to study its economic condition: 
  Therefore, be it

Resolved, That the President of the United States be requested to transmit to the House of Representatives, if not incompatible with the public service, such correspondence as may have passed between the Department of State and various foreign Governments concerning the maintenance of the “open door” policy in China,

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State, with accompanying papers.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, April 2, 1900.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a copy of a letter from Mr. Ferdinand W. Peck, Commissioner-General of the United States to the Paris Exposition of 1900, dated November 17, 1899, submitting a detailed statement of the expenditures incurred under authority of law.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, April 17, 1900.

To the House of Representatives: 

I transmit herewith a report from the Secretary of State in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of March 23, 1900, calling for copies of any and all letters on file in the Department of State from citizens of the United States resident in the South African Republic from January 1, 1899, to the present time, making complaints of treatment by the South African Republic.

WILLIAM McKINLEY.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, May 3, 1900.

To the House of Representatives: 

I herewith return, without approval, House bill No. 4001, entitled “An act authorizing the rights of settlers on the Navajo Indian Reservation, Territory of Arizona.”  My objections to the bill are embodied in the following statement: 

This tribe has a population of about 20,500 souls, of whom 1,000 dress in the manner of white men, 250 can read, and 500 use enough English for ordinary conversation.  Last year they cultivated 8,000 acres, and possessed approximately 1,000,000 sheep, 250,000 goats, 100,500 cattle, 1,200 swine, and very considerable herds of horses and ponies.