Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883

No. 485.
Mr. Halderman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Legation of the United States,
Bangkok, August 20, 1883. (Received October 8.)

No. 53.]

Sir: The French engineers, headed by Captain Bellion, of the French navy, sent out by De Lesseps and the Suez Canal Company, to make survey of the Isthmus of Kraw, in the interest of a projected ship canal uniting the waters of the Bay of Bengal and the Gulf of Siam, have, it is understood by those who know, completed their work, and gone home.

It is safe to affirm that they report against the practicability of the scheme.

I have, &c.,

JOHN A. HALDERMAN.