Mr. Foster to Mr. Stevens.
Washington, November 8, 1892.
Sir: Adverting to your current dispatches in relation to the course of political events in the Hawaiian Islands, many of which are marked by you “confidential,” and for obvious reasons, I desire to suggest that you endeavor to separate your reports into two classes, one of which shall aim to give the narrative of public affairs in their open historical aspect, and the other to be of a strictly reserved and confidential character, reporting and commenting upon matters of personal intrigue and the like so far as you may deem necessary for my full understanding of the situation. Many of your dispatches combine these two modes of treatment to such a degree as to make their publication, in the event of a call from Congress or other occasion therefor, inexpedient, and, indeed, impracticable, without extended omissions.
I am, etc.,