Mr. Sherman to Mr. Adam.
Washington, October 20, 1897.
Sir: An unavoidable delay has occurred in replying to your notes of the 9th and 15th instant respecting a meeting of experts of the United States, Great Britain, and Canada, owing to my inability to communicate with the persons whom it was the desire of the President to designate for that purpose. I now have the honor to inform you that the delegates appointed to represent the Government of the United States at the meeting of experts, as indicated in your note of the 15th instant, are Messrs. Charles S. Hamlin and David Starr Jordan, and that they will be ready to begin their sessions at such time as shall be agreed upon after the arrival of the British delegates in this city, having due regard for the convenience of the latter.
In view of the language employed in your two notes, of which this is an acknowledgment, it seems necessary that I should add that no action on the part of my Government can properly be construed into a proposal to change the conditions established by the conferences held and the notes exchanged between Her Majesty’s principal secretary for foreign affairs and the United States ambassador in London in July last. But while the President has been greatly desirous that the British Government should participate in a conference where the whole subject of the controversy might be considered, he welcomes any step taken in that direction, however circumscribed. It is a source of gratification to him that the meeting of American, British, and Canadian experts has been definitely arranged, and he sincerely trusts it may lead to an early and honorable adjustment of this long pending question.
I have, etc.,