The Secretary of State to Minister Wilson.
Washington, April 1, 1908.
Your telegram of 30th. Your recital of instructions received by your British colleague suggests that they are in the line of the desire and expectation of the United States that the conditions of the Kongo annexation shall be such as to benefit the natives, relieve them from onerous burdens, increase the commercial and residential privileges of foreigners, and generally carry out the stipulations of existing treaties to which the United States is a party. You may independently and coincidently express our views in the same sense as Great Britain does.