The conduct of commercial negotiations under the authority and in
accordance with the conditions found in sections 3, 4, and 5 of the
existing tariff act, approved July 24, 1897, having been intrusted to a
special commissioner plenipotentiary duly empowered by the President to
that end, it has been deemed convenient to leave to the commissioner the
preparation of a report in answer to the second part of the Senate
resolution, the undersigned reserving to himself the response to the
first part thereof, which concerns the political and consular functions
of the Department of State. The separate report of the Hon. John A.
Kasson, special commissioner plenipotentiary, is therefore herewith
independently submitted to the President with a view to its transmission
to the Senate, should such a course be, in the President's judgment, not
incompatible with the public service.

The Senate resolution, while in terms calling for the submission to that
honorable body of all or of a practical selection of the reports of the
consul-general and consuls of the United States in Cuba written or
received since March 4, 1897, which relate to the state of war in that
island and the condition of the people there, appears to leave it to the
discretion of the President to direct the scope of the information to be
so reported and the manner of its communication. The undersigned, having
taken the President's direction on both these points, has the honor to
lay before him a selection of the correspondence received by the
Department of State from the various consular representatives in Cuba,
aiming thereby to show the present situation in the island rather than
to give a historical account of all the reported incidents since the
date assigned by the resolution.

Respectfully submitted.