No. 177.
Mr. Sargent to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Berlin, February 17, 1883. (Received March 10.)
Sir: I have the honor to report that, at the request of Count Hatzfeldt, imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs, I had an interview with him to-day, where a number of questions interesting to the United States, which I had previously called to his attention, were provisionally discussed, of which I will make full report as soon as conclusions are reached. When he had concluded with his topics I read to him your telegram of the 15th instant, which states that the President invites Germany to send a commission of experts to the United States to examine the raising and packing of hogs and hog products for food, and that he asks that final decision on prohibitory measures may be suspended until the commission can adequately report.
I told him that the proposed prohibition had excited a good deal of attention and some feeling in America, explained the importance of the proposition to the United States, informed him that there was a general belief there, founded on experience and careful examination, that the objection to American pork as a sound article of diet is unfounded, and that the exclusion would be improvident. I called his attention to the conclusive and candid report of the commission appointed by the State Department to examine and report on the mode of raising hogs and preparing their products for market, made after extensive and exhaustive investigation. I told him I would send to him a fuller statement of the matter as soon as I received the instruction now on the way to me by mail, and would also at the same time send a copy of the public document to which I referred; and I trusted that while the imperial Government were considering this proposition of the President nothing further would be done, and the proposition would be accepted. He said nothing decisive upon the subject, as, of course, he could not of his own responsibility, but expressed a desire to have the documents and information in question.
I have, &c.,