Because of the great increase in the appropriations for rural delivery, post-office officials say that the idea of one-cent letter postage in the United States must be put aside for many years.
The Porte has addressed a formal note to the American legation at Constantinople confirming its undertaking to accord equal treatment to American schools and kindred institutions as granted to the most favored nation, "subject to the accomplishment of the usual departmental formalities.
Three important recommendations will be embodied in the forthcoming report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, as follows: That a law be enacted requiring medical inspection of emigrants at points of embarkation in Europe: that the Chinese Exclusion Act be strengthened by the assignment of American officials to duty at American consulates in China, empowered to examine the certificates of all persons who desire to visit the United States: that appropriations be made for the erection of additional buildings and providing better facilities for the reception of immigrants at Ellis Island, New York.
The Acting Secretary of the Navy, has by letter informed the contractor who had made arrangements with the Cuban Gov-ernment to remove the wreck of the Maine, that the Navy Department has no authority either to abandon the vessel or to permit its removal.
The Bureau of Insular Affairs of the War Department has received a copy of an enactment of the Philippine Commission providing for the administration and temporary leasing and sale of the land commonly known as the Friar Lands, for the purchase of which the government of the Philippine Islands recently has contracted.
A reception in honor of Independence Day was given in London by American Ambassador Choate, which was attended by about fifteen hundred guests, including many distinguished Englishmen.
The Constellation, the oldest ship of the old navy, has been brought from Newport to the New York Navy Yard to await there her further disposition by the Navy Department.
