Office of the Historian

No. 237.
Mr. Noyes to Mr. Evarts.

Legation of the United States,
Paris, June 26, 1880. (Received July 14.)
No. 361.]

Sir: Referring to State Department dispatch No. 239, of date June 2, 1880, I have the honor to inform you that on the 17th of June I addressed a communication to the French minister for foreign affairs, embodying the substance of my instructions as set out in said dispatch No. 239.

I have received the reply of Mr. de Freycinet, a copy of which, together with a translation of the same, I have the honor to inclose herewith.

I have, &c.,

EDWARD F. NOYES.
[Page 366]
[Inclosure in No. 361.—Translation.]

Mr. de Freycinet to Mr. Noyes.

Paris, June 24, 1880.

General: By your letter of the 19th of this month, referring to my communication of the 28th of April, in relation to the exercise of the right of navigation under the flag of the protectorate of the Society Islands, you were pleased to express to me, in the name of your government, the desire to know if the regulation actually in force maintained the obligation on the part of foreign captains soliciting authority to navigate under the colors of the protectorate, to pay a tax of $100 (500 francs). I hasten to announce to you that, since last year, the minister of the marine, in order to put the new regulation in complete harmony with the liberal thought which had inspired it, prescribed the suppression of the fiscal provision in question.

Accept, &c.,

C. de FREYCINET.