Mr. Leishman to Mr.
Hay.
United
States Legation,
Berne,
Switzerland, January 14,
1899.
No. 124.]
Sir: In compliance with instructions contained
in your dispatch No. 138 of December 29 last, I at once communicated
with His Excellency the President of the Swiss Confederation, as per
copy herewith inclosed, and realizing the desirability of prompt action,
I followed it up with a personal interview, knowing from a personal
communication from my friend, Mr. Pioda, who is spending his holiday on
his estate in Perugia, Italy, that it was not his intention to return to
Switzerland before returning to his post of duty, and that he intended
sailing direct from Naples on the 20th instant.
The President promised to give the matter prompt consideration, but as it
is necessary to first refer the matter to the minister of commerce, it
will probably not be possible to arrive at any definite conclusion ere
Mr. Pioda’s departure, and even should the federal council decide
favorably on the matter it could not be formally ratified on the part of
the Swiss Government until the next regular meeting of the Swiss Federal
Assembly in June next.
Regretting my inability to comply more closely with the desire expressed
in your dispatch,
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Leishman to
Mr. Muller.
United States Legation,
Berne, Switzerland, January 11, 1899.
Sir: I beg leave to submit to your
excellency a copy of a projet of convention which I have just
received from the honorable Secretary of State, which if promptly
executed by your excellency’s Government and the Government of the
United States would leave the existing treaty between our respective
countries intact, except so far as the four articles in question are
concerned.
Legislation of this character is rendered necessary, as already
indicated by the honorable Secretary of State to your honored
representative at Washington, owing to the embarrassment of the
Government of the United States in its commercial relations with
other countries resulting from the construction now given to the
most-favored-nation clauses of the treaty of 1850 between the Swiss
Confederation and the United States of America, and I earnestly
request that your excellency will give the inclosed projet of
convention your early and favorable consideration, so as to enable
the Department of State to submit the proposed convention to the
Senate for ratification during the present session, which expires
March 4 next.
With the assurances of the earnest desire of my Government to
conclude the question with the least possible derangement of our
conventional relations, which have existed for nearly half a
century, and begging, etc.,
