Mr. Townsend to Mr. Hay .

No. 55.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of dispatch No. 43, dated May 21 last, and to inform the Department that, in conformity with instructions contained therein, I transmitted to the minister of foreign affairs a copy of the letter of the Secretary of State at Monrovia announcing the adhesion of Liberia to the convention of June 8, 1899, governing the sale of spirituous liquors in certain portions of Africa.

The day after I had sent this communication the minister for foreign affairs called at the legation to express his cordial thanks for the action taken by the United States Government in procuring the adhesion of Liberia to said convention. In the course of our interview he referred to my note to the Belgian Government of March 20, in which I communicated the instructions of the Department to the effect that the President had, on December 11, 1899, transmitted the convention to the Senate of the United States in order to receive the advice and consent [Page 37] of that high body to the adhesion of the United States to said convention, but that until such advice and consent be granted the United States could not become an adhering party. He called my attention to the fact that nearly all the signatory powers had notified their adhesion to the above convention, and desired to know if, in my opinion, the adhesion of the United States would be likely to reach Brussels before the 8th instant. As I was unable to give him a definite reply to this question, I forwarded to-day to the Department a cablegram which reads as follows:

Government of Belgium wishes to know if adhesion of the United States to the convention controlling traffic spirituous liquors in Central Africa is likely to reach Brussels before June 8 next.

I have, etc.,

Lawrence Townsend.