Privy Counsellor.

On behalf of Italy—

Count Albert de Foresta,

First Secretary of Legation.

On behalf of Japan—

Professor Kikuchi,

Dean of the Scientific Dep't of the University of Tokio.

On behalf of Mexico—

Mr. Leandro Fernandez,

Civil Engineer.

Mr. Angel Anguiano,

Director of the National Observatory of Mexico.

On behalf of Paraguay—

Captain John Stewart,

Consul-General.

On behalf of Russia—

Mr. C. de Struve,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

Major-General Stebnitzki,

Imperial Russian Staff.

Mr. J. de Kologrivoff,

Conseiller d'État actuel.

On behalf of San Domingo—

Mr. M. de J. Galvan,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

On behalf of Salvador—

Mr. Antonio Batres,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

On behalf of Spain,

Mr. Juan Valera,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

Mr. Emilio Ruiz del Arbol,

Naval Attaché to the Spanish Legation.

Mr. Juan Pastorin,

Officer of the Navy.

On behalf of Sweden—

Count Carl Lewenhaupt,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

On behalf of Switzerland—

Colonel Emile Frey,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

On behalf of the United States—

Rear-Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers,

U. S. Navy.

Mr. Lewis M. Rutherfurd.

Mr. W. F. Allen,

Secretary Railway Time Conventions.

Commander W. T. Sampson,

U. S. Navy.

Professor Cleveland Abbe,

U. S. Signal Office.

On behalf of Venezuela—

Señor Dr. A. M. Soteldo,

Chargé d'Affaires.

The following delegates were not present:

On behalf of Chili—

Mr. Francisco Vidal Gormas,

Director of the Hydrographic Office.

Mr. Alvaro Bianchi Tupper,

Assistant Director.

On behalf of Denmark—

Mr. Carl Steen Andersen de Bille,

Minister Resident and Consul-General.

On behalf of Germany—

Mr. Hinckeldeyn,

Attaché of the German Legation.

On behalf of Liberia—

Mr. William Coppinger,

Consul-General.

On behalf of the Netherlands—

Mr. G. de Weckherlin,

Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary.

On behalf of Turkey—

Rustem Effendi,

Secretary of Legation.

The delegates were formally presented to the Secretary of State of the United States, the Honorable Frederick T. Frelinghuysen, in his office at 12 o'clock. Upon assembling in the Diplomatic Hall, he called the Conference to order, and spoke as follows:

Gentlemen: It gives me pleasure, in the name of the President of the United States, to welcome you to this Congress, where most of the nations of the earth are represented. You have met to discuss and consider the important question of a prime meridian for all nations. It will rest with you to give a definite result to the preparatory labors of other scientific associations and special congresses, and thus make those labors available.

Wishing you all success in your important deliberations, and not doubting that you will reach a conclusion satisfactory to the civilized world, I, before leaving you, take the liberty to nominate, for the purpose of a temporary organization, Count Lewenhaupt.

It will afford this Department pleasure to do all in its power to promote the convenience of the Congress and to facilitate its proceedings.

By the unanimous voice of the Conference the Delegate of Sweden, Count Lewenhaupt, took the chair, and said that, for the purpose of proceeding to a permanent organization, it was necessary to elect a President, and that he had the honor to propose for that office the chairman of the delegation of the United States of America, Admiral C. R. P. Rodgers.

The Conference agreed unanimously to the proposition thus made, whereupon Admiral Rodgers took the chair as President of the Conference, and made the following address:

Gentlemen: I beg you to receive my thanks for the high honor you have conferred upon me in calling me, as the chairman of the delegation from the United States, to preside at this Congress. To it have come from widely-separated portions of the globe, delegates renowned in diplomacy and science, seeking to create a new accord among the nations by agreeing upon a meridian proper to be employed as a common zero of longitude and standard of time reckoning throughout the world. Happy shall we be, if, throwing aside national preferences and inclinations, we seek only the common good of mankind, and gain for science and for commerce a prime meridian acceptable to all countries, and secured with the least possible inconvenience.

Having this object at heart, the Government of the United States has invited all nations with which it has diplomatic relations to send delegates to a Congress to assemble at Washington to-day, to discuss the question I have indicated. The invitation has been graciously received, and we are here this morning to enter upon the agreeable duty assigned to us by our respective governments.

Broad as is the area of the United States, covering a hundred degrees of longitude, extending from 66° 52' west from Greenwich to 166° 13' at our extreme limit in Alaska, not including the Aleutian Islands; traversed, as it is, by railway and telegraph lines, and dotted with observatories; long as is its sea coast, of more than twelve thousand miles; vast as must be its foreign and domestic commerce, its delegation to this Congress has no desire to urge that a prime meridian shall be found