Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1882

No. 273.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Hamlin .

Department of State,
Washington , January 10, 1882.

No. 20.]

Sir: Referring to instruction No. 195, of the 2d November last, to Mr. Fairchild, and other correspondence, I inclose, as a further paper connected with the subject of that instruction, a copy of a letter from Mr. Houghton, secretary of the Maritime Association of New York, and of a memorial of that association, respecting the charge of 10 cents per ton levied by the Spanish consul there on cargoes for Cuba and Porto Rico.

I am, &c.,

FEED’K T. FRELINGHUYSEN.

[Inclosure 1 in No. 20.]

Mr. Houghton to Mr. Frelinghuysen .

Maritime Association of the Port of New York,
New York , December 16, 1881.

Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith the memorial of this association upon the subject of the illegal tax of 10 cents per ton upon cargoes for Cuba and Porto Rico levied by the Spanish consulate, and trust that it may have your early attention.

Yours, &c.,

F. W. HOUGHTON,
Secretary.

[Inclosure 2 in No. 20.]

memorial of the maritime association of new york.

To the honorable Secretary of State:

The undersigned ship-owners and merchants of New York respectfully ask your attention to the charge of 10 cents per ton made by Spanish consuls upon the cargo of every vessel clearing from an American port to any port of the islands of Cuba or Porto Rico.

While we are aware that the Government of Spain has the right to impose any duty upon, or even to prohibit, importations into the Spanish colonies, we respectfully submit that the manner of collecting so large a duty as 10 cents upon each ton of a ship’s cargo by requiring the ship itself to pay it in advance, and in an American port, is highly objectionable in form, and is unnecessarily burdensome upon the ship-owners.

The ship is refused clearance at the consulate until the impost is paid, and in the case of a miscellaneous cargo it is impossible for the owners of the vessel to collect the same from the shippers. It amounts in the present form to a clearance charge upon the ship itself, while if it were collected at the Spanish port upon arrival, it would seem, as it really is intended, we presume, to be, an import duty upon the cargo, and would be paid by the consignees.

We feel assured that if the matter were brought to the notice of the Spanish Government through your department it would receive attention, and perhaps thereby American ship-owners, already sufficiently burdened, would be relieved of a difficulty which, as at present imposed, bears very heavily upon the carrying trade to the Spanish colonies.

For these reasons we beg the friendly remonstrances of your department with the Spanish Government.

New York, December 12, 1881.

(Signed by the Maritime Association of New York and by 79 mercantile firms.)