In order, therefore, to continue the provisions of the said convention of July 29, 1882, an additional article concluded at Washington December 5, 1885, further extended the time for the completion of the work for “eighteen months from the expiration of the term fixed in Article VIII of the said treaty of July 29, 1882,” or until January 3, 1889.

As there was no further provision extending the said treaty of July 29, 1882, beyond that date, it expired by limitation.  Hence the necessity for the convention of the 18th instant in its present form.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889.

To the Senate: 

I transmit herewith, in confidence, for the information of the Senate, a report from the Secretary of State, showing the progress of the correspondence in relation to the conference to be held at Berlin between the Governments of the United States, Germany, and Great Britain to settle the affairs of the Samoan Islands.

The nature of this information and the stage of the negotiations thus agreed upon and about to commence at Berlin make it proper that such report should be communicated to the Senate in the confidence of executive session.

As the conference has been proposed and accepted and the definitive bases of its proceedings agreed upon by all three Governments and on the lines with which the Senate has heretofore been made fully acquainted, nothing remains to be done but to select and appoint the commissioners to represent the United States, and the performance of this duty, in view of the few days that now remain of my term of office, can be most properly left to my successor.

In response to the inquiry of the German minister at this capital whether the names of the proposed representatives of the United States at the conference in Berlin could at once be given to him, he has been informed that the appointments in question would be made by my successor and not by me, and that in coming to this decision the expedition desired by Germany in the work of the conference would in my judgment be promoted.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889.

To the Senate: 

I transmit, with a view to its ratification, a convention for the extradition of criminals, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Russia on the 28th day of March, 1887; also a report from the Secretary of State and accompanying papers relating to the negotiations which terminated in the conclusion of the treaty in question.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889.

To the Senate: