File No. 711.31/100.

Message of the President of Venezuela to the Congress at the opening of its ordinary session, April 19, 1912.

[Extract.]

Recently we were visited by Mr. Philander C. Knox, Secretary of State of the United States of America. He came as a representative of the First Magistrate of that great Republic. We received him with cordiality and sincere affection, and with a solemnity befitting the high office with which he was invested. The Government of Venezuela and all the social, political, and industrial bodies gave to this visit the importance which distinguished it.

For my part, I must declare that I have never entertained the slightest suspicion regarding the sovereignty of Venezuela. In the history of our relations with the great Republic of the North I find sincerity and benevolent collaboration; so that the visit of His Excellency Mr. Knox, on the eve of the inauguration of the Panama Canal, destined to draw toward the central part of America the mighty commercial current of the world, I consider as a cordial tightening of these important relations.