125.0084/39
The Secretary of State to
the Vice Consul at Aden (Park)
Washington, February 7,
1927.
Sir: The Department duly received Mr. Totten’s
despatch No. 5 of June 17 last,6 transmitting a sealed envelope containing two
letters addressed to the President by His Imperial Highness, Ras Taffari
Makonnen, Prince Regent of the Empire and Heir to the Throne of
Ethiopia. One of these letters concerned two elephant tusks which the
Prince sent as a personal gift to the President,6 and the other related to the
establishment of a diplomatic mission at Addis Ababa.7
The Department now encloses the President’s replies to the communications
from the Prince, together with office copies thereof, as well as copies
for the files of the Consulate.
The office copies should be transmitted to the appropriate office of the
Ethiopian Government and the original letters transmitted to their
destination in the manner that may be most agreeable to His Imperial
Highness.
I am [etc.]
For the Secretary of State:
J.
Butler Wright
[Enclosure]
President Coolidge to Ras Tafari
Makonnen, Prince Regent of Ethiopia
Great and Good Friend: It affords me great
pleasure to learn from Your Highness’s letter of May 24, 1926, that
my special emissary
[Page 591]
to
Your Highness, Mr. Ralph James Totten, was so fortunate and so
diligent in the performance of his duties as to gain your friendly
support and esteem.
With respect to the subject of Mr. Totten’s mission, i. e. the
question of the reappointment near the Government of Ethiopia of an
official representative of the United States, I am pleased to inform
Your Highness that, upon the receipt of Mr. Totten’s account of his
visit to Your Highness’s capital and on the recommendation of my
Secretary of State, I proposed to the Congress of the United States
the appropriation of funds for the salary of a Minister
Plenipotentiary and Envoy Extraordinary to Ethiopia to be available
as from July first, 1927, the beginning of this Government’s next
fiscal year. Therefore, should this proposal be favorably acted upon
by the Congress, it is my intention to take the necessary further
steps in this matter.
In informing Your Highness regarding these matters, I desire again to
assure you of my own good wishes and of my sincere desire to
promote, in so far as I may be able, the cordial understanding now
happily existing between our two governments and peoples.
Your Good Friend,
By the President:
Joseph C.
Grew,
Acting Secretary of
State.
Washington, February 3, 1927.
