One of the leaders in this movement informs me that all interested in this
business prefer simple prohibition to the apparent facilities offered by the
application of the freezing process. It is the intention of the French
dealers to push this matter as strongly as possible and to bring it before a
cabinet meeting.
I again, a few days ago, called the attention of Mr. Challemel Lacour to this
subject, and I am sorry to say that although he is personally in favor of
the repeal of the decree of prohibition, and has urged it, he does not
believe that his colleague will favor, at present, its abrogation. His
reasons are that other countries have taken similar measures of prohibition,
and that French scientists are divided upon the question of the danger which
may result from the consumption of American meats.
I did not conceal from Mr. Challemel Lacour the fact that the continuance of
this long-standing prohibition had already created much feeling at home, and
that our people could not understand why such discrimination should be made
against them, when the highest French scientific authorities had
emphatically declared that the measure was groundless, and my apprehension
that Congress would take some retaliatory action unless the decree was
abrogated.
Mr. Challemel Lacour said he would again call the attention of his colleague
to the matter.
The truth is, that the decree was rendered under the pressure of certain
French packers who are still interested in its maintenance. By a strange
coincidence, these very men, who are also producers of sardines and other
canned articles, have been specially favored by our new tariff. * * *
[Inclosure in No.
333.—Translation.]
petition addressed to the minister of commerce by
french importers of american hog products.
To the Minister of Commerce,
Paris:
Monsieur le Ministre: We, the undersigned
merchants in American salted meats and lard at Bordeaux, have the honor
to solicit your favor, Monsieur le Ministre, for the fulfillment of the
promises which have been so often made to us in claiming the abolition
of the decree of the 18th of February, 1881.
The solution of this question can be no longer delayed; light has been
brought to bear on it, and our port should be opened to the free
importation of these provisions, indispensable to the nourishment of the
poor classes, and the absence of which has already caused an increase of
price, so hard for the nourishment of workmen.
The spontaneous and disinterested petition which has just been made to
you, M. le Ministre, by the presidents and delegates of the Chambers of
Commerce of Paris, Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Havre, lead us to hope that
the just claims, made in such pressing terms by the most important
personages of French trade, should have immediately
[Page 267]
brought about the withdrawal purely and
simply of the prohibitive decree, and that yon would have thus put an
end to a state of things so fatal to the industrial and commercial
interests of the country.
But, if you contemplate acceding to these just demands, we learn with
surprise that you are about to consider a project which will consist in
submitting salted provisions on their entry into France to a system of
refrigeration, against the adoption of which we protest with the utmost
energy.
We know that for several years past a patent has been taken out for the
preservation of provisions by freezing, that the owners of this patent
have been seeking means to utilize it, but apparently without success,
since at present they rush to find for it a lucrative employment and
easy profits in having it adopted by the Government.
The application of this system would be disastrous, and would completely
damage the trade; in fact, M. le Ministre, the numerous manipulations
which the provisions would undergo in order to be submitted to the
influence of the cold, the unpacking of the barrels, the hanging on the
ladders intending to facilitate the storage, the repacking, &c.,
would give rise to such expenditures, such damage and deprecation of
qualities that it would be foolish on the part of serious business men
to expose themselves to such risks.
To these inconveniences, which are more than sufficient to cause the
rejection of such a project, we should add that it appears to us
impossible that provisions submitted to the action of the cold and to a
high temperature can be preserved, and we maintain this statement
notwithstanding the laboratory experiments on a single ham. This trade
would then be exposed to so many risks and hazards that there would be
no security to engage in it.
Of all the means proposed, refrigeration is that which we most
energetically reject; but if the greater part of the others present
inconveniences almost as serious, one only has been put to the test,
that is, the free circulation, which for twenty years has never given
rise to a single complaint or caused a single accident.
The return then to the common right is then the solution which we solicit
from your justice, M. le Ministre, as compensation for the harm done by
the decree of the 18th of February, and we claim it not only in the name
of our trade but in the name of public interest.
In fact, M. le Ministre, this unfortunate measure has had the effect of
provoking in the American press violent and unjust attacks against
alimentary produce exported by France to the United States, attacks,
which, if continued, would end by throwing disfavor on such produce and
driving it from this vast market.
Moreover, the reprisals with which the Government of the United States
has not ceased to menace the French trade have received commencement of
execution in the rise of the entry duties imposed on our wines, which is
of a nature to considerably reduce the sale.
We, then, who have always foreseen such consequences from the decree of
the 18th of February, and that in spite of interested denials, do not
hesitate to affirm that refrigeration can never be considered as a
compensating measure (since it will have all the effects of
prohibition), but rather as an indirect means calculated to perpetuate
it, and that our Government can never succeed by such a proceeding in
overcoming the obstacles which the new tariff has just raised against
our produce.
We know sufficiently well all the interest you take in the national trade
to be convinced that you will take into consideration the remarks which
we have the honor to place before you, and that you will favorably
receive our petition.
We beg you, &c.,
[Signatures.]