Special Message

To the Senate:

In response to the resolution of January 15, I transmit the attached letter from the Acting Secretary of the Navy, with inclosures, which contain fully and specifically the information asked for.

In reference to the case of Martini, especial attention is drawn to the communications of the Secretary of War, notably his communication to the Department of the Navy of July 18, 1902; the special dispatch of July 18 from the War Department to General Chaffee, commanding the Division of the Philippines, and to the communication of the Acting Secretary of the Navy of July 26 to the governor of Guam inclosing said letter from the Secretary of War and directing that action in accordance therewith be taken.

By these letters the governor of Guam is explicitly directed to release from detention all prisoners, and it is presumed that he has acted accordingly; but to provide against the slightest chance of misapprehension he has been specifically directed that all persons found in the island under the direction of the War Department shall be released in accordance with the terms of the Secretary of War's letter of July 18. In other words, the inhabitant of the Philippine Islands named Martini, concerning whom a special inquiry is made in the resolution of the Senate, is at liberty to go on a Government transport anywhere outside of the Philippine Islands where such transports touch without taking any oath of allegiance whatsoever, and is allowed to go to any part of the world save the Philippine Islands without taking the oath of allegiance, and he will be allowed to go on any private vessel to the Philippine Islands, but he can not land there save on condition of complying with the act of the Philippine Commission demanding that he take the oath of allegiance. This is also a condition of the proclamation of peace and amnesty.

THEODORE ROOSEVELT