Another international conference having great possibilities for good has lately assembled and is now in session in this capital.  An invitation was extended by the Government, under the act of Congress of July 9, 1888, to all maritime nations to send delegates to confer touching the revision and amendment of the rules and regulations governing vessels at sea and to adopt a uniform system of marine signals.  The response to this invitation has been very general and very cordial.  Delegates from twenty-six nations are present in the conference, and they have entered upon their useful work with great zeal and with an evident appreciation of its importance.  So far as the agreement to be reached may require legislation to give it effect, the cooperation of Congress is confidently relied upon.

It is an interesting, if not, indeed, an unprecedented, fact that the two international conferences have brought together here the accredited representatives of thirty-three nations.

Bolivia, Ecuador, and Honduras are now represented by resident envoys of the plenipotentiary grade.  All the States of the American system now maintain diplomatic representation at this capital.

In this connection it may be noted that all the nations of the Western Hemisphere, with one exception, send to Washington envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, being the highest grade accredited to this Government.  The United States, on the contrary, sends envoys of lower grades to some of our sister Republics.  Our representative in Paraguay and Uruguay is a minister resident, while to Bolivia we send a minister resident and consul-general.  In view of the importance of our relations with the States of the American system, our diplomatic agents in those countries should be of the uniform rank of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary.  Certain missions were so elevated by the last Congress with happy effect, and I recommend the completion of the reform thus begun, with the inclusion also of Hawaii and Hayti, in view of their relations to the American system of states.

I also recommend that timely provision be made for extending to Hawaii an invitation to be represented in the international conference now sitting at this capital.

Our relations with China have the attentive consideration which their magnitude and interest demand.  The failure of the treaty negotiated under the Administration of my predecessor for the further and more complete restriction of Chinese labor immigration, and with it the legislation of the last session of Congress dependent thereon, leaves some questions open which Congress should now approach in that wise and just spirit which should characterize the relations of two great and friendly powers.  While our supreme interests demand the exclusion of a laboring element which experience has shown to be incompatible with our social life, all steps to compass this imperative need should be accompanied with a recognition of the claim of those strangers now lawfully among us to humane and just treatment.