No. 334.
Mr. Hunter
to Mr. Hoppin.
Department
of State,
Washington, November 8,
1881.
No. 257.]
Sir: Referring to instruction No. 248, of the 20th
ultimo, to you, relative to the delivery of the papers of American ships
into the custody of the customs authorities on the west coast of Africa, I
now have to inclose herewith, for your information, a copy of a letter dated
the 24th ultimo, from Messrs. Yates & Porterfield, explaining their
letter of the 18th of the same month, on the subject in question.
I will thank you to make such further communication to Her Majesty’s
Government on the subject as the tenor of your former note may in your
judgment, require.
I am, &c.,
W. HUNTER,
Acting
Secretary.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 257]
Messrs. Yates &
Porterfield to Mr. Blaine.
New
York, October 24,
1881.
Sir: The favor of your Department, dated the
20th instant, in response to our communication of the 18th, has been
received, all of which is satisfactory excepting there seems to be a
misunderstanding of our letter. The Department states in your
communication of the 20th that as you speak of Sierra Leone as one of
the ports where the objectionable practice of which you complain exists,
the minister of the United States at London has been instructed to make
inquiry upon the subject and to request that, if the step should not be
sanctioned by law, orders may be given for it to be discontinued, at
least in respect to American vessels.”
If you will please to refer to ours of the 18th you will see that we
referred to places on the African coast from “Sierra Leone to the river
Gaboon, where our government is not represented by an American consul or
commercial agent.”
Now, our government is represented at Sierra Leone and at Monrovia and
Bassa, Liberia, and our vessels experience no trouble with the customs
offiers at these ports. One difficulty our captains have to contend with
at the ports where our government is not represented, is that the one
claiming to be an officer of the customs, as he boards the vessels, has
nothing to show that he is the proper party to receive the papers, and
the captains fearing that they may not be justified in refusing to
deliver up the papers demanded, do so in doubt as to whether they are
doing right or are putting themselves in the hands of parties having no
authority.
We are, &c.,
