A suggestion for a permanent exposition of our products and manufactures in Russia, although not yet fully shaped, has been so cordially welcomed by the Imperial Government that it may not inaptly take a fitting place in whatever legislation the Congress may adopt looking to enlargement of our commercial opportunities abroad.

Important events have occurred in the Samoan Islands.  The election, according to the laws and customs of Samoa, of a successor to the late King, Malietoa Laupepa, developed a contest as to the validity of the result, which issue, by the terms of the General Act, was to be decided by the Chief justice.  Upon his rendering a judgment in favor of Malietoa Tanu, the rival chief, Mataafa, took up arms.  The active intervention of American and British war ships became imperative to restore order, at the cost of sanguinary encounters.  In this emergency a joint commission of representatives of the United States, Germany, and Great Britain was sent to Samoa to investigate the situation and provide a temporary remedy.  By its active efforts a peaceful solution was reached for the time being, the kingship being abolished and a provisional government established.  Recommendations unanimously made by the commission for a permanent adjustment of the Samoan question were taken under consideration by the three powers parties to the General Act.  But the more they were examined the more evident it became that a radical change was necessary in the relations of the powers to Samoa.

The inconveniences and possible perils of the tripartite scheme of supervision and control in the Samoan group by powers having little interest in common in that quarter beyond commercial rivalry had been once more emphasized by the recent events.  The suggested remedy of the joint Commission, like the scheme it aimed to replace amounted to what has been styled a tridominium, being the exercise of the functions of sovereignty by an unanimous agreement of three powers.  The situation had become far more intricate and embarrassing from every point of view than it was when my predecessor, in 1894, summed up its perplexities and condemned the participation in it of the United States.

The arrangement under which Samoa was administered had proved impracticable and unacceptable to all the powers concerned.  To withdraw from the agreement and abandon the islands to Germany and Great Britain would not be compatible with our interests in the archipelago.  To relinquish our rights in the harbor of Pago Pago, the best anchorage in the Pacific, the occupancy of which had been leased to the United States in 1878 by the first foreign treaty ever concluded by Samoa, was not to be thought of either as regards the needs of our Navy or the interests of our growing commerce with the East.  We could not have considered any proposition for the abrogation of the tripartite control which did not confirm us in all our rights and safeguard all our national interests in the islands.