Mr. Foster to Mr. Snowden .
Washington , December 20, 1892 .
Sir: I inclose copy of a joint resolution (S. R. 92) presented to the Senate by Senator Dolph on July 1, 1892, respecting the Mora claim.
Senator Dolph, of the Committee on Foreign Relations, to whom the bill has been assigned for a report, has called upon the Department informally for its views as to the propriety of its passage. In reply, I have said to him that I had already called the attention of Señor Dupuy de Lôme to the pending bill and urged upon him the importance of obtaining from his Government at an early day some authorized statement respecting its intention as to the execution of the ageement made with Mr. Curry. I have also suggested to Señor Dupuy de Lôme the propriety of obtaining from his Government full authority to adjust, by convention or otherwise, the various claims pending between the two governments, and have said to him that should he fail to obtain at an early day some definite instructions and authority upon these subjects, there was great probability that the joint resolution would be passed or some action taken by Congress looking to the enforcement of the Mora claim.
You are instructed to bring this matter by personal interview to the attention of the minister of state and impress upon him the peculiar condition in which the matter is now placed by the delay of the Spanish Government and the pendency of the joint resolution in Congress.
I am, etc.,