Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/327

 GROVER CLEVELAND 275 as was believed, that she might be in readiness to act as a guardship should she be required to do so, no occasion arose for her use, the American squad ron in Turkish waters, larger than for many years previous, being such as to compel proper treatment of American citizens in Turkey. Owing to the repeated efforts, especially in the Pacific states, to restrict Chinese immigration, laws had been passed by congress, which were agreed to by China in a special treaty concluded at Washing ton, March 17, 1894. By this treaty Chinese labor ers were prohibited entering the country, and those already residing in the United States were required to be registered. On May 3, 1894, the time fixed by congress for this registration expired. There was great objection to this feature of the law, and large numbers of Chinese had failed to register. The law provided that all such should be deported, but finally the administration decided that as no means had been provided for this purpose no steps should be taken to carry out the deportation clause. The seal-fishery question, which it had been hoped was settled by the Paris tribunal, continued to come in different forms before the administra tion. President Cleveland had urged in one of his messages that congress should sanction the pay ment of $425,000, agreed upon between Secretary Gresham and the British minister as compensation for Canadian vessels seized unlawfully by the U.