Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Athens, April 13, 1903.
Sir: I have the honor to confirm the telegram sent you from Bucharest on the 7th instant.
I have the honor to report that I left Athens on Friday, March 27, and traveling by the most direct route and with all possible dispatch arrived in Bucharest about noon on Tuesday, March 31. Had it not been for fog in the Black Sea, which prevented our reaching Constanza until after the last train on Monday had left for Bucharest, I might have arrived about twelve hours earlier. On the afternoon of my arrival I called at the foreign office, made the acquaintance of Mr. Bratiano, the minister of foreign affairs, and left a written request for an audience with the King of Roumania, in order to present my own letter of credence and Mr. Francis’s letter of recall. * * *
Instead of communicating with the court at once, Mr. Bratiano preferred, for some reason, to wait until Saturday, the day of his regular audience with the King, before informing His Majesty officially of my arrival. On Saturday afternoon, however, I received notification that my audience would take place the following Tuesday. Accordingly, on April 7, I had the honor of being received by His Majesty with the customary ceremonial. As no formal speech was required, I made use of the German language, out of personal compliment to the King, who speaks but little if any English, and in handing him my letters I stated that I had been charged to convey to him the President’s greetings and the assurance of the best wishes of the United States for the prosperity of Roumania. I said that I had been instructed to endeavor to advance the interests of both countries, and that it would be my duty and my pleasure to do all in my power to strengthen the good understanding which has heretofore existed between the American and Roumanian Governments. The King, in reply, asked me to transmit his “sympathetic greetings” to the President, and extended to me a cordial welcome to Roumania. In the course of the informal conversation which followed His Majesty made certain pleasant personal remarks, and expressed the hope that there would be opportunity for his becoming better acquainted with me than he had been with my recent predecessors. I replied that it was my intention to pass the greater part of the summer in Roumania, at Sinaia, where the court and diplomatic corps usually spend the summer. At this he seemed much pleased. Subsequently I was received by the Queen and by the Prince and Princess of Roumania with the usual formalities.
In conversation with members of the diplomatic corps and others, I learned that the King had spoken freely about his wish to see more of the American minister and to have him learn to know Roumania better, and had expressed his satisfaction, at hearing that it was my intention to see something of the country. * * *
I have, etc.,