agreed upon and about to commence at Berlin make it proper that such report should be communicated to the Senate in the confidence of executive session. As the conference has been proposed and accepted and the definitive bases of its proceedings agreed upon by all three Governments and on the lines with which the Senate has heretofore been made fully acquainted, nothing remains to be done but to select and appoint the commissioners to represent the United States, and the performance of this duty, in view of the few days that now remain of my term of office, can be most properly left to my successor. In response to the inquiry of the German minister at this capitai whether the names of the proposed representatives of the United States at the conference in Berlin could at once be given to him, he has been informed that the appointments in question would be made by my successor and not by me, and that in coming to this decision the expedition desired by Germany in the work of the conference would in my judgment be promoted. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the Senate: EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889. I transmit, with a view to its ratification, a convention for the extradition of criminals, signed by the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Russia on the 28th day of March, 1887; also a report from the Secretary of State and accompanying papers relating to the negotiations which terminated in the conclusion of the treaty in question. To the Senate: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889. I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying documents, relative to a naturalization treaty between the United States and Turkey signed the 11th day of August, 1874, as to the proclamation of which the advice of the Senate is desired. The advice and consent of the Senate were given to the ratification of the convention on the 22d of January, 1875, but with certain amendments which were not fully accepted by the Ottoman Porte. Because of such nonacceptance the treaty has never been proclaimed. Finally the Turkish Government, after the passage of fourteen years, has accepted the amendments as tendered. But in view of the long period that has elapsed since the Senate formerly considered the treaty I have deemed it wiser that before proclaiming it the Senate should have an opportunity to act upon the matter again, my own views being wholly favorable to the proclamation. GROVER CLEVELAND. To the House of Representatives: EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, February 27, 1889. I transmit herewith, in response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 21st of December last, a report of the Secretary of State and accompanying documents, touching affairs in Madagascar. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1889. To the Senate of the United States: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, concerning the expenses of the representation of the United States at the Brussels Exhibition of 1888. GROVER CLEVELAND. [The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.] EXECUTIVE MANSION, February 28, 1889. To the Senate of the United States: I have the honor to transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State, respecting the representation of the United States at the Barcelona Exposition of 1888. GROVER CLEVELAND. [The same message was sent to the House of Representatives.] To the Congress: EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1889. I herewith transmit the fifth report of the Civil Service Commission, covering the year which ended June 30, 1888. The cause of civil-service reform, which in a great degree is intrusted to the Commission, I regard as so firmly established and its value so fully demonstrated that I should deem it more gratifying than useful if at this late day in the session of Congress I was permitted to enlarge upon its importance and present condition. A perusal of the report herewith submitted will furnish information of the progress which has been made during the year to which it relates in the extension of the operations of this reform and in the improvement of its methods and rules. It is cause for congratulation that watchfulness and care and fidelity to its purposes are all that are necessary to insure to the Government and our people all the benefits which its inauguration promised. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, To the Senate of the United States: Washington, March 2, 1889. I transmit herewith, for the consideration of the Senate with a view of giving its advice and consent to the ratification thereof, a convention. signed in Washington on March 1, 1889, by duly authorized representatives of the United States and Mexico, providing for the institution of an international commission to determine questions between the United States and Mexico arising under the convention of November 12, 1884, by reason of changes in the river bed of the Rio Grande and the Colorado River when forming the boundary between the two countries. A report of the Secretary of State, with the accompanying correspondence therein described, is also communicated for the information of the Senate. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1889. To the Senate and House of Representatives: I herewith transmit a report of the Secretary of State and accompauying documents, relative to the undetermined boundary line between Alaska and British Columbia. To the House of Representatives: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1889. I herewith transmit a report from the Secretary of State, in further response to the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 22d [21st] of December last, touching affairs in Madagascar. To the Senate: GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1889. I herewith transmit, for the information of Congress, a report from the Secretary of State, with its accompanying correspondence, in regard to the construction of certain dams or wing facings in the Rio Grande at Paso del Norte (Ciudad Juarez), opposite the city of El Paso, Tex. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, March 2, 1889. To the Senate of the United States: I have the honor to transmit herewith a communication from the Scoretary of State, covering the report of the commissioner of the United States to the Brussels Exhibition of 1888. GROVER CLEVELAND. VETO MESSAGES. EXECUTIVE MANSION, December 19, 1888. To the House of Representatives: I return without approval House bill No. 5080, entitled "An act for the relief of C. B. Wilson." This bill directs the Postmaster-General to credit to the beneficiary therein named, who is the postmaster at Buena Vista, in the State of Colorado, the sum of $225, being post-office funds forwarded by him to the deposit office at Denver, but which were lost in transmission. A general law was passed on the 9th day of May, 1888, authorizing the Postmaster-General to make allowances and credits to postmasters in precisely such cases. On the 8th day of September, 1888, under the sanction of that law, the credit directed by this bill was made. It is plain, therefore, that the bill herewith returned ought not to become a law unless it is proposed to duplicate the credit therein mentioned. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 16, 1889. To the House of Representatives: I return without approval House bill No. 8469, entitled "An act for the relief of Michael Pigott." This bill appropriates the sum of $48 to the beneficiary therein named, formerly the postmaster at Quincy, Ill., which was paid by him for the use of a telephone for the year ending June 30, 1873. There is evidently a mistake made in the statement of the period covered by the use of this telephone, for the official term of the beneficiary extended from May 16, 1881, to June 18, 1885. Assuming, however, that it was intended to describe the period ending June 30, 1883, it appears that the use of a telephone during that time was wholly unauthorized by the Post-Office Department, and that the only authority given for any expenditure for that purpose covered the period of one year from the 1st day of January, 1884. The following letter, dated July 16, 1884, was sent to the beneficiary from the salary and allowance division of the Post-Office Department: In reply to your letter relative to amounts disallowed for use of telephone for your office, you are informed that the said expenditures were made without the authority of this office, and it is therefore deemed advisable not to approve the same. Your authority for a telephone was for one year beginning January 1, 1884. At the expiration of the time named, if you desire to continue the telephone service, you should make application to the First Assistant Postmaster-General for a renewal of the same. The multitude of claims of the same kind which the legislation proposed would breed and encourage, and the absolute necessity, in the interest of good administration, of limiting all public officers to authorized expenditures, constrain me to withhold my approval from this bill. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 16, 1889. To the House of Representatives: I return without approval House bill No. 7, entitled "An act granting a pension to Thomas B. Walsh." This beneficiary enlisted January 1, 1864, and was discharged August 1, 1865. He is reported absent without leave in April, 1864, and further recorded as having deserted November 24, 1864. He was restored to duty in May, 1865, by the President's proclamation. He filed an application for pension in December, 1881, alleging that he contracted rheumatism in May, 1865. This statement of the claimant and nearly, if not all, the evidence in the case which tends to show the incurrence of the disability complained of appear to fix its appearance at a date very near the return of the beneficiary after his desertion. In these circumstances the proof of disability, such as it is, is as consistent with its incurrence during desertion as it is with the theory that the beneficiary suffered therefrom as the result of honorable military service. GROVER CLEVELAND. EXECUTIVE MANSION, January 16, 1889. To the House of Representatives: I return without approval House bill No. 2236, entitled "An act granting a pension to Eli. J. Yamgheim." The beneficiary named in this bill filed an application for pension in the Pension Bureau April 15, 1875, basing his claim upon an alleged wound of his left leg from a spent ball about October 15, 1861. There is no record of his incurring any wound or injury during his service, and it does not appear that the company to which he belonged was in action nearer to the date he specifies than September 17, 1861, and his captain testifies that the beneficiary was not injured in the engagement of that day, which lasted only about fifteen minutes. The proof taken in the case establishes that before enlistment the beneficiary had a sore on his leg which was quite troublesome, which suppurated, and after healing would break out again. In the medical examinations made during the pendency of the claim |