No. 375.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Mexico, October 28, 1878. (Received November 14.)
Sir: In your dispatch No. 425, of November 14, 1877, you instructed me to bring to the attention of the Mexican minister of foreign affairs the decree of the State of Yucatan, granting a bounty on the exportation of [Page 662] hemp, or henequen, to Europe, and discriminating against exportation to the United States, which was regarded by you as a violation of the treaty of 1831, which I was instructed to ask to have corrected. In my Mo. 641, of December 7, 1877, I advised you of the execution of your instructions, and the promise of the minister that the subject should have early attention.
But, as the minister failed to give me any other answer, some time after the recognition of the government of President Diaz, I recalled the ministers attention to the subject, on the 28th of May last, representing the disadvantageous operations of the decree toward American commerce.
Mr. Vallarta excused his delay on the ground that he had been waiting to obtain the necessary information from the State of Yucatan, which he said he had just received, and he assured me that he would without delay give me the decision of his government.
Notwithstanding this assurance, I heard nothing further on the subject. Having received, last month, information that the State authorities of Yucatan are continuing to enforce the decree by granting a bounty to European exportation and refusing the same for exportation to the United States, on the 28th ultimo I addressed an urgent note to the acting minister of foreign affairs, reviewing the past delay of his department, and asking for it his early consideration. He has permitted an entire month to pass without even acknowledging receipt of my note, and nearly one year has transpired since the subject was first presented, and no decision has yet been taken on the matter. I have reason to believe that up to the present date no serious effort has been made by the federal government to secure a repeal or modification of the decree. The Diario Oficial of the 19th instant published a detailed account of the recent session of the State legislature of Yucatan, referring to the recommendations of the governor and the acts of that body during its three months’ session, and nowhere is any allusion made to a proposition for the repeal of the decree.
The Mexican constitution has a provision similar to that of the United States in regard to federal jurisdiction over foreign commerce, and Mr. Vallarta, in my first interview on the subject, recognized it as an acknowledged principle.
Hemp or henequen is the main product of Yucatan for exportation. By means of the American line of steamers which has been engaged in the service for ten years, this trade has been almost entirely developed and built up, so that Mew York is almost the only market for this product. As the cultivation increases, a necessity is felt for a wider field for consumption, and the State government hit upon the project of granting a bounty on the exportation to Europe, in the hope of encouraging a demand and creating a new market. Besides the unjust discrimination against American commerce in general, it works a particular hardship to the American line of steamers referred to, which has, after so many years of labor, built up a lucrative trade in the article.
The only explanation I can make of the strange delay to decide the question or to answer my note is that, as Yucatan has in past years proved a source of much trouble to the federal government, on account of its independent and revolutionary spirit, it has been thought safer to treat the demand of the United States with silence rather than risk a conflict with that State.
I am, &c.,