healthfulness of the food staples we send abroad to countries where
their use is large and necessary.

I transmitted to the Senate on the 10th of February last information
touching the prohibition against the importation of fresh fruits from
this country, which had then recently been decreed by Germany on the
ground of danger of disseminating the San José scale insect. This
precautionary measure was justified by Germany on the score of the
drastic steps taken in several States of the Union against the spread of
the pest, the elaborate reports of the Department of Agriculture being
put in evidence to show the danger to German fruit-growing interests
should the scale obtain a lodgment in that country. Temporary relief was
afforded in the case of large consignments of fruit then on the way by
inspection and admission when found noninfected. Later the prohibition
was extended to dried fruits of every kind, but was relaxed so as to
apply only to unpeeled fruit and fruit waste. As was to be expected, the
alarm reached to other countries, and Switzerland has adopted a similar
inhibition. Efforts are in progress to induce the German and Swiss
Governments to relax the prohibition in favor of dried fruits shown to
have been cured under circumstances rendering the existence of animal
life impossible.

Our relations with Great Britain have continued on the most friendly
footing. Assenting to our request, the protection of Americans and their
interests in Spanish jurisdiction was assumed by the diplomatic and
consular representatives of Great Britain, who fulfilled their delicate
and arduous trust with tact and zeal, eliciting high commendation.
I may be allowed to make fitting allusion to the instance of Mr. Ramsden,
Her Majesty's consul at Santiago de Cuba, whose untimely death after
distinguished service and untiring effort during the siege of that city