Minister Swenson to the Secretary of State

No. 185

Sir: I have had the honor to receive your No. 109, dated the 16th instant, enclosing an amended draft of a convention for the cession of the Danish West Indies to the United States. In discussing the modifications of the project of convention desired by the Danish Government, you say: [Repeats clause 1.]

Inasmuch as this suggested amendment of Article III is worded identically as the original clause—both in your dispatch and in the amended project enclosed therewith—I fail to understand wherein the amendment consisted; and thinking that a clerical error might possibly have been made, as was actually the case in naming the [Page 479] lesser alternative sum in your dispatch, I sent you a cipher cablegram, on the 27th instant, the true reading of which was as follows: [Printed ante.]

I have, accordingly, this day presented the whole matter to the Danish Government in the sense indicated in your dispatch. The Minister of Foreign Affairs assures me that the subject will be given immediate and earnest consideration, with a view to reaching an early agreement.

I have [etc.]

Laurits S. Swenson