No. 310.
Mr. Wallace to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, March 21, 1882.
(Received April 10.)
No. 74.]
Sir: Mr. B. O. Duncan, while visiting the city last
week, informed me that the customs officers at Smyrna were continuing to
collect a duty upon alcohol in excess of the rate specifically agreed upon
under the treaty. Inclosed please find a copy of a note which I will to-day
send to the Porte upon the subject.
* * * * * * *
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 74.]
Mr. Wallace to
Assim Pasha.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, March 8,
1882.
Excellency: In the correspondence relative to
certain new regulations touching the importation of alcohols which were
the subject of a protest from this legation, dated November 17, 1881,
you were pleased in one of your notes to declare the action of the
customs officials at Smyrna in that connection a mistake attributable to
a wrong construction of Article XIV of the regulations. Accepting the
admission as in good faith, and construing it as equivalent to a promise
on your excellency’s part that the mistake should be promptly corrected,
and the practice of the officials reformed, I permitted the matter to
pass out of mind. But now it is with regret that I have to inform you of
the receipt of information from Smyrna to the effect that collections
upon alcohol from the United States have there gone on under the
so-called new regulations without stop or abatement. Upon the
presumption that there must be a degree of respect for orders when
received by customs officers from the Porte, the inference is scarcely
to be avoided that no corrective instructions whatever were in this
instance sent to Smyrna; much less were the officials at that place
directed to return to collections upon alcohol from the United States
within the terms of the treaty, as I had the honor to demand. Should
this inference be correct, the failure is certainly liable to be
received by my superiors in Washington as an omission hardly
distinguishable from an act of unfriendliness which your admission above
referred to will tend to make the more pointed.
In confidence that your excellency does not wish such an impression to go
abroad, I beg to serve you with an opportunity to demonstrate your good
intent, as well as your respect for existing treaties, by renewing the
demand made upon you in my note of November 17, above mentioned, that
the direction of indirect contributions at Smyrna be required to suspend
the further execution of the said article 14 in so far as it has effect
upon any article of production or manufacture in the United States of
America imported into the empire and possessions of His Imperial Majesty
the Sultan; that as respects every article the produce or manufacture of
the United States, whether in the hands of a buyer or seller in His
Majesty’s Empire, the said article 14 be canceled and revoked; and in
particular that the duty upon alcohol from the United States be returned
and limited to the rate of 16 paras the oke, as fixed by the agreed
tariff under the treaty. And that the customs officers at Smyrna may be
left without excuse for further persistence in their unlawful
collections, as well as that the American consul at that city may have
information needful for the protection of the very important interest in
question, your excellency will permit me to further demand a copy of the
instructions which you may be pleased to issue to the said officials. I
consider it proper to notify you also that in a few days I will present
to you a statement showing the total amount of duty paid at Smyrna under
the so-called new regulations on imported American alcohol, and demand
payment of the charges in excess of the duty agreed upon under the
treaty. Your excellency will oblige me by an early reply to this
communication.
I avail myself, &c.,
