The distribution of our payment of $40,000,000 follows the award of arbitrators chosen by the new company and the liquidator, authorized by the decree of this same Civil Tribunal of the Seine, and providing for a determination of the proportionate division between the new and old companies. We paid the money through the New York banking house of Messrs. J. P. Morgan & Company, acting as fiscal agents of this Government, into the Bank of France in Paris. The receipts and accounts of our Treasury Department show the payment of the money into the Bank of France and account for the money being paid over to the liquidator appointed by the Civil Tribunal of the Seine and to the New Panama Canal Company of France, the proportion of the forty million dollars being 128,600,000 francs to the liquidator of the old company and 77,400,000 francs to the New Panama Canal Company of France in liquidation. In these payments we followed to the letter the decree of the governmental tribunal of France which had the authority to make such a decree, the Civil Tribunal of the Seine. We had neither desire nor authority to go behind this decree of this proper governmental body, as all the conflicting rights of the security-holders of both companies had been settled by the decree of said court by ratification of the arbitration which resulted in that division.

I wish to make as clear as possible, and as emphatic as possible, the statement that we did not have anything to do with the distribution of a dollar of the $40,000,000 we paid as regards any stockholder or bondholder of the French Companies, save that we followed out the award of the arbitrators appointed in accordance with the decree of the French court which had dealt with the subject in awarding a certain proportion to the old company and a certain proportion to the new company. Any question concerning the stockholders, bondholders, or other beneficiaries of the proceeds of sale was purely a question for the Civil Tribunal of the Seine, the French governmental body, with which this Nation had nothing whatever to do.

The New Panama Canal Company of France is in liquidation. As the accompanying papers set forth, this liquidated company received as its proportion of the $40,000,000 the sum of 77,400,000 francs, and this amount was distributed by the liquidation in three payments through four leading banks of Paris, covering a period of the past four years, and to shareholders numbering about 6,000. Every step of the transaction was not only taken publicly, but was, contemporaneously therewith, advertised in the legal and financial papers of France, and the banks making the payments took proper receipts from all the parties to whom payments were made, as is customary in such cases.

The capital of the New Panama Canal Company of France was 65,000,000 francs, and the distribution thus made amounted to about 130 francs on each share of 100 francs. No dividends were paid during the ten years of the company's existence. It therefore resulted that the shareholders only recovered their original investment with annual interest of about three percent.

The accounts and records of this liquidation, which was concluded in June last, are on deposit with the Credit Lyonnaise of Paris as a proper custodian of the same, appointed upon such liquidation. Recently a request was made by a private individual to inspect the records of these payments, but answer was made by the custodians that they saw no proper reason for granting such request by a stranger, and, inasmuch as there is not the slightest ground for suspicion of any bad faith in the transaction, it hardly seems worth while to make the request; but if the Congress desires, I have no doubt that on the request of our Ambassador in Paris, the lists of individuals will be shown him.

As a matter of fact, there is nothing whatever, in which this Government is interested, to investigate about this transaction. So far as this Government is concerned, every step of the slightest importance has been made public by its Executive, and every step taken in France has there been made public by the proper officials.

The Congress took the action it did take after the most minute and exhaustive examination and discussion, and the Executive carried out the direction of the Congress to the letter. Every act of this Government, every act for which this Government had the slightest responsibility, was in pursuance of the act of the Congress here, and following out the decree of the Civil Tribunal of the Seine in France.

Furthermore, through the entirely voluntary act of Mr. Cromwell, I am now able to present to you full information as to these actions in France with which this Government did not have any concern, and which are set forth in the accompanying papers.

It may be well to recall that the New Panama Canal Company of France did not itself propose or fix the figure $40,000,000 as the valuation of the canal and railroad properties. That sum was first fixed by our Isthmian Canal Commission in its reports to the Congress after two years of investigation and personal inspection of all the properties and work already done, whereby the properties and the work done were in detail appraised at that sum as their value to the United States. The French Company steadily refused for over two years to make any offer whatever in answer to the many written requests of the Isthmian Canal Commission ; and when its president did approach the question of price, it was on the basis of $100,000,000. Later, under conditions not necessary now to rehearse, the company, by cable, accepted the appraisement of $40,000,000 made by our Commission. This Government, therefore, acquired all the properties and concessions, both of canal and railroad, at its own valuation and price, the Congress approving the price, and authorizing the expenditure of the money, after the most exhaustive examination and discussion.