No. 50.
Mr. Goodloe
to Mr. Evarts.
Brussels, July 12, 1878. (Received July 24.)
Sir: Referring to your dispatch No. 7, which only reached me July 6, in relation to the wishes of the Government of Belgium, as to the time and place of holding the international monetary conference, I have the honor to state that I had previously talked the matter over with Mr. Frère-Orban, the minister for foreign affairs, and he had expressed a preference for the city of Paris as the place for the assembling of the congress, inasmuch as all monetary conferences of the Latin Union were held there.
The question of time was not touched upon, as I was ignorant of the wishes of the United States in that regard, except that I knew that a provision of the act required the assembling of the convention within six months from its passage.
Since the reception, however, of your dispatch, through the legation at Paris, naming the 10th of August as the date of assembling, instead of the 25th of July as heretofore proposed, I have again communicated with the minister for foreign affairs, who assures me that the 10th of August will be entirely agreeable to the representatives of the Belgian Government.
It may, therefore, be understood that the Belgian Government accepts the invitation of the United States to attend an international conference to be held in the city of Paris on August 10, 1878.
I have, &c.,