Message to the Congress Recommending payment of a Claim Presented by a Chinese Citizen.

To the Congress of the United States:

I transmit herewith a report of the Acting Secretary of State requesting the submission to the Congress of a claim against the Navy Department submitted through the American consul at Nanking in behalf of Li Ying-ting, a citizen of China, for the deaths of four members of the claimant's family resulting from a collision between the claimant's junk and the United States naval vessel Hart on the Yangtze River on July 3, 1925.

I recommend that, as an act of grace and without reference to the question of the legal liability of the United States, an appropriation of $1,500 United States currency be authorized to effect settlement of this claim, in accordance with the recommendations of the Acting Secretary of the Navy and the Acting Secretary of State.

HERBERT HOOVER

The White House,

April 30, 1930.