Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Athens, February 9, 1903.
Sir: I have the honor to report that soon after my arrival in Athens I addressed a note to the Roumanian minister of foreign affairs, informing him of my appointment and stating that I intended to visit Bucharest at the earliest practicable opportunity and to seek an audience with His Majesty the King of Roumania in order to present to him the President’s letter of credence, the office copy of which I duly inclosed. Yesterday I received a call from the Roumanian minister here, who told me that he had been instructed to inform me of the due receipt of my note, and to say that—although that note was the first communication received at Bucharest which contained official information of my appointment, and although the King’s “agrément” thereto had not been requested—His Majesty was ready to waive the customary formalities and to receive me, in view of my personality and of the report made about me by the Roumanian minister at Berlin. I replied that, so far as I was aware, it was not the practice of the United States Government to ask for the usual “agrément” in the case of its ministers; that the records failed to show that any request had been made in the case of my several predecessors, and that the American practice was understood and generally reciprocated by those countries which had ministers accredited to the United States residing in Washington. Mr. Ghica, the minister here, said that Mr. Bratiano, the minister of foreign affairs, was probably not acquainted with what I had just told him, and that he would communicate with him at once, but that in my case, in any event, no difficulty would be made.
Mr. Ghica then went on to talk about the general relations between the United States and Roumania. He said that the King was especially desirous to have Americans know his country better and that His Majesty hoped to see more of the American ministers in the future than has heretofore been the case. He referred to the feelings of the King and the Roumanian Government with regard to the American minister being instructed to reside at Athens. I explained that Greece was a maritime country, that American naval and merchant vessels visited Greek ports from time to time, and that Greece was the first of the Balkan States to which an American minister had been sent, and I called attention to the fact that Roumania had no representative, not even a consular officer, in the United States. [Page 700] Mr. Ghica replied that Roumania’s financial condition did not admit of her having a large diplomatic service, while the United States is a rich country. He suggested that some one should be left as a chargé d’affaires at Bucharest whenever the minister was not in the Kingdom, so that the legation might have a more permanent character. In reply I called attention to the fact that, from an American point of view, I was present at my post as Jong as I was in either Greece, Roumania, or Servia, and that consequently I could not leave a charge at Bucharest while I was at Athens; that when I went on leave of absence the secretary of legation at Athens became, as far as the United States Government is concerned, chargé d’affaires for all three countries, and that Mr. Boxshall, our vice-consul-general at Bucharest, could not be made a charge, as he suggested, because he was a consular officer and not an American citizen. Mr. Ghica then urged that a secretary of legation should be appointed to reside at Bucharest.
I told the minister that I would inform you of what he had said, but that I could not hold out any prospect that any change would be made, as present conditions had existed ever since the accrediting of the first United States minister to Roumania. Personally, I am of the opinion that it would be to our commercial advantage to have separate ministers in the several Balkan States, or, if not in all of them, to have a separate representation in Greece. The projected railways connecting Greece with the rest of Europe are still to a great extent on paper, and when the Greek sections are completed, which may be the case in a few years, there will probably be no connecting link through European Turkey for some time to come. Consequently it takes three or four days to get from Athens to Bucharest or Belgrade, and the connections are so bad that no one is inclined to make the trip more often than is actually necessary. The Roumanians are very sensitive; they are proud of their King, and their relatively stable Government has made them feel superior to the other Balkan peoples; their country needs foreign capital to develop its considerable resources, and American commercial interests are increasing all the time. (Only recently I was applied to by the American representative of a New York firm doing business in the Orient to advocate the appointment of an American consular agent at Galatz, where the British have a consul-general.) Several things have occurred during the past year or two which the Roumanians think would not have occurred if we knew their country better or if they had known and seen more of our accredited representative, and I am sure that it would be to our advantage * * * if we had some kind of permanent diplomatic representation at Bucharest.
I have, etc.,