Mr. Olney to Sir Julian Pauncefote .
Washington , November 12, 1895 .
Excellency: I have the honor to apprise you that the President has appointed Messrs. James B. Angell, of Michigan, John E. Russell, of Massachusetts, and Lyman E. Cooley, of Illinois, members of a Commission on the part of the Government of the United States to report upon the feasibility of building such canals as shall enable vessels engaged in ocean commerce to pass to and fro between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean, and upon the other matters set forth in an act of Congress approved March 2, 1895.
Mr. Angell is president of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, and was formerly United States minister to China; Mr. Russell was [Page 706] formerly a representative in Congress from Massachusetts, and Mr. Cooley is a prominent civil engineer of Chicago, Ill.
I shall be pleased to learn the names of any commissioners upon the same subject already or hereafter appointed by the Government of Great Britain or of the Dominion of Canada.
I have, etc.,