No. 334.
Mr. Evarts to Sir Edward
Thornton.
Washington, February 28, 1880.
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence concerning the regulations governing the transportation of merchandise to, from, and through the British possessions of North America, and particularly to your note of the 11th of July, 1878, suggesting that a previous announcement should be made by each government to the other of any proposed changes in the regulations in question, I now have the honor, in accordance with a request received from my colleague, the Secretary of the Treasury, to submit for the consideration of Her Majesty’s Government a copy of proposed regulations relative to the transportation in question, which, if adopted, will supersede those now in force. The printed copy of the proposed regulations inclosed herewith contains certain marginal annotations made by the Treasury Department for the purpose of facilitating the understanding of the exact character of the changes suggested. The letters “S S” in the marginal notes refer to the decisions of the Treasury Department, of which copies of those referred to are likewise transmitted herewith.
In transmitting these documents to me the Secretary of the Treasury observes that he deems this a fitting time to revise the regulations in question, as to form, and, as far as necessary, as to substance, inasmuch as they will, as revised, when adopted, constitute a part of the general regulations of the Treasury relative to customs, commerce, and navigation now in process of revision.
I am requested to direct particular attention to articles 31, 42, and 43 of the proposed regulations as requiring the approval of Her Britannic Majesty’s Government in pursuance of Article XXX of the treaty of Washington.
I am furthermore requested to say that the changes which have been made since the adoption of the treaty regulations of March 30, 1875, have been embodied in the proposed regulations, as well as certain other modifications which are noted below. A comparison of the proposed regulations with those now in force will show that while many changes are made in phraseology no material ones are suggested in the subject-matter except as hereinafter specified. Such a comparison will be facilitated by the cross-references which are made on the margins of the copies of the present and proposed regulations herewith inclosed, indicating corresponding articles, and the several changes made.
The modifications in matters of substance, as pointed out by the Secretary of the Treasury, will be found in the proposed regulations in article 3;
[Page 509]Article 5;
Article 13, in the portion which permits cording, sealing, and branding of goods to be done on the dock, if it can be done with safety to the revenue;
Article 14, which embodies a general rule in relation to bonded goods;
Article 15, in that portion which is contained in the sentence commencing with the words “such packages as do not agree”;
Article 19, in the last part of the first paragraph relating to the effects of persons going to Manitoba;
Article 20, second paragraph, the object of which is to inform the customs officers as to who is the consignee for exportation; the last sentence of the third paragraph, and the last paragraph;
Article 26;
Article 31, second paragraph, which is one of those submitted for approval, as above mentioned, and which is thought by the Secretary of the Treasury to be necessary, in view of the condition under which goods are shipped from Calais in transit through New Brunswick;
Article 32, as to sealing cars at the frontier port of departure, and as to impressing on the manifest the number or device of the seal, the verification of the contents of the car by a comparison of the manifest with the lading being omitted;
Article 33, in so far as it permits the collector’s certificate upon the manifest to be based upon the examining officer’s return;
Article 42, first paragraph, which, as modified, conforms more precisely, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, to the language of Article XXX of the treaty of Washington;
Article 43, last clause of the first paragraph;
The Secretary of the Treasury, furthermore, desires that the attention of Her Majesty’s Government may be called to the following additional particulars, namely:
Article 3 of the regulations now in force has been omitted as unnecessary, being merely a statement embodied elsewhere in the general customs regulations of the ordinary proceedings incident under the law to entries of all merchandise imported into the United States;
The requirement of the oath prescribed in article 7 of the present regulations is omitted;
The return of the inspector certificate to the collector at the port of shipment, as required in article 15, last clause of the fourth paragraph, is dispensed with, being considered unnecessary by the Secretary of the Treasury;
The time for which the export bond is taken on goods for Pembina is reduced to sixty days, in view of the present increased facilities for communication with that place;
The recommendation to foreign shippers, contained in the seventh paragraph of article 24 of the present regulations, is omitted from the proposed regulations as unnecessary;
The third paragraph of article 35 of the present regulations is a general rule applicable to all entries for withdrawal from warehouse, and is considered by the Secretary of the Treasury unnecessary in the proposed regulations;
The second paragraph of article 36 of the regulations now in force is modified by the omission of the provision in relation to the several copies of the entry, it being provided that a manifest instead of an entry is to be sent with the goods, and the copies of the entry are disposed of under article 15 of the proposed regulations, which embodies a general rule of [Page 510] the Treasury Department in relation to the disposition of the copies of all entries;
The forms are omitted from the body of the regulations in accordance with the general plan of the revision of the customs regulations adopted by the Secretary of the Treasury, and are placed together by themselves; and in cases where the forms themselves indicate the purposes for which they are designed, and the character of the proceedings to be taken, they are not described in the regulations, but simply referred to by their numbers.
Finally, the Secretary of the Treasury desires that the attention of Her Majesty’s Government may be called to the circumstance that in 1874 the regulations now in force, except as subsequently amended, were presented for the consideration of Her Majesty’s Government in a body, without separating those pro visions which were strictly under the treaty from those which were not, whereas in the proposed regulations such a separation is made, the portion which relates to matters not coming under the treaty of Washington being found in the supplement, except that articles 79 to 92 of the supplement which relate to the importation of goods under consular seal may, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Treasury, be considered as a part of the treaty regulations, so far as they are applied by article 21 of the proposed regulations, to merchandise in transit.
In view of the fact that the proposed regulations submitted herewith are a part of a general revision of the customs regulations of the Treasury Department now in progress, I am desired by my colleague, the Secretary of the Treasury, to invite the early consideration of this subject by Her Majesty’s Government.
I have, &c.,
Note.—Inclosures omitted on account of their length.