Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1875, Volume II

No. 628.
Mr. Cadwalader to Mr. Boker.

Department of State,
Washington, August 13, 1874.

No. 205.]

Sir: I transmit a copy of a letter of the 10th instant from Messrs. Laforme & Frothingham in relation to the interdiction by the Turkish government of the sending of telegraphic messages in cipher to or from the United States.

If upon inquiry you find that such an interdiction has been made, you will informally exert your good offices to secure the exemption from the rule of the American mercantile firms engaged in commerce between the United States and the Turkish dominions, as it must be for the mutual interest of the two countries to remove rather than create obstructions to commercial intercourse between them.

The sentiments entertained by the Government and people of the United States toward the Ottoman Empire are so friendly that it would be difficult to imagine any political cause for the adoption of a prohibition such as no other foreign nation has adopted in relation to the mode of telegraphic communication between the merchants of the United States and their correspondents abroad.

It is possible that this movement may have been brought about by parties interested in the profits of telegraphic cables, with the view to compel merchants to resort to the more costly form of communication usually employed; but it is believed that you will be able to satisfy the authorities that the evils and disadvantages of the prohibition would greatly counterbalance any benefits that might result from it, so far as it affects intercourse with this country.

I am, &c.,

JOHN L. CADWALABER,
Acting Secretary.

[Inclosure to No. 205.]

Messrs. Laforme & Frothingham to Mr. Fish.

Boston, August 10, 1874.

Sir: We desire to call the particular attention of your Department to the prohibition placed by the Ottoman government on the transmission of telegraphic messages in cipher to or from the United States. This prohibition is a source of great inconvenience to merchants doing business with Turkey, inasmuch as it compels them either to be burdened with an enormous expense in using the telegraph, or to limit the number of their messages, and curtail their advices to an injurious extent. The Ottoman government claims that there are serious considerations for maintaining this prohibition, but of what nature we have not been able to ascertain. If, in reality, any practical advantages are gained by that government in establishing such a prohibition, we would not complain, but we can discover none whatever. It seems to us as unjustifiable, above all in time of peace, to prohibit secret messages by telegraph, as it would be to forbid the transmission of sealed letters by mail. Provided there is no serious objection to doing so, we would feel greatly obliged if your Department would instruct the minister of the United States near the Sublime Porte to protest against the maintenance of the prohibition in question, and to take measures for its removal.

We are, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servants,

LAFORME & FROTHINGHAM.

Hon. Hamilton Fish,
Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.