Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1901

Mr. Hay to Mr. Sampson.

Department of State,
Washington, April 10, 1901.

No. 168.]

Sir: I inclose copy of a letter from Rev. John Lee, of Chicago, who asks certain specified questions concerning the passage in Ecuador of a civil registry law and one relating to education.

The Department will be pleased to have you give it the information necessary to answer the inquiry made.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Lee to Mr. Hay.

57 Washington Street, Chicago, Ill., April 5, 1901

Dear Sir: Will you kindly answer the following questions:

1. Did the Ecuadorean Congress pass the civil registry of marriages, births, and deaths law? Has it received the approval of the Executive; and if so, when?

2. Did the Ecuadorean Congress pass a law providing that no priest or monk can teach in any school under Government control, and that no school conducted as a private affair by priests can hereafter confer any degrees, except in an ecclesiastical line? Has this law received the approval of the Executive; and if so, when?

If the State Department is in possession of any recent intelligence concerning “more liberal laws relating to marriages and public worship” in either Ecuador or Bolivia, I shall thank you most sincerely for such intelligence.

Yours, most respectfully,

John Lee.