Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1883

No. 337.
Mr. Daggett to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

[Extract.]

Legation of the United States,
Honolulu , June 8, 1883. (Received July 16.)

No. 78.]

Sir: As an inclosure from the Department of State, I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of a letter addressed to you by the honorable Secretary of the Treasury, dated May 1, 1883, together with a copy of a letter to the Treasury Department from the collector of customs at San Francisco, dated April 9, 1883, both referring to probable shipments of Chinese raw sugars to these islands, and thence to the United States, as Hawaiian sugars entitled to free entry.

I beg to refer to my dispatch of March 5, 1883 (No. 56), embracing a general report upon the subject. After a very thorough investigation I was able to report that during the year 1882 but four vessels from Chinese ports were entered at Hawaiian ports, and from none of them were sugars discharged. I also sought to show that illicit shipments and reshipments of Chinese sugars, for the purpose of securing for them free entry into the United States, would not be profitable, would scarcely be possible, and in reality had not been made.

Concerning the information of the United States consul at Hong-Kong* * * that the Glenelg, Madras, C. T. Hook and other vessels were about to depart from that port with cargoes of raw sugars, which he apprehended might be landed upon these islands, I refer to my dispatch of May 18, 1883 (No. 73). The Glenelg, which was cleared for Victoria, British Columbia, discharged no sugars here 5 the Madras brought no sugars as cargo, and is still here, having been in strict quarantine for nearly sixty days; and the C. T. Hook has not arrived nor is it certain that she will arrive, since the principal purpose of the proposed voyage, as of the Glenelg and Madras, was the transportation hither of Chinese laborers, against which the Hawaiian Government has formally protested.

But three vessels have touched here from Chinese ports since the beginning of the year: the Glenelg March 29, the Madras April 10, and the Livingstone May 8. From none of them have sugars been discharged in any port of these islands, either illicitly or by payment of duty.

In answer to the inquiry of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury relating to the duties imposed on imported sugars by the Hawaiian Government, I beg to say that a specific duty of 2½ cents per pound is imposed on all imported raw sugars, and on refined sugars an ad valorem duty of 10 per cent, is collected. This duty of 2½ cents per pound on raw sugars was laid expressly to prevent the importation of raw sugars from China and elsewhere, and their manipulation and reshipment to the United States. The law was intended to be prohibitory; and such it has proved to be, since no shipment has ever been made under it.

No raw sugars were imported into these islands in 1882, but of refined sugars 201,284 pounds were during that perion imported for domestic consumption, all of it from the United States.

Agreeably to the request of the honorable Secretary of the Treasury, I transmit a copy of this dispatch to the collector of customs at San Francisco, for the use of the Treasury commission in session there.

Very respectfully, &c.,

ROLLIN M. DAGGETT.

Mr. Folger to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

Treasury Department ,
May 1, 1883. (Received May 3.)

[The following are the inclosures mentioned by Mr. Daggett in the above dispatch.]

Sir: I have the honor to inclose herewith a copy of a letter, dated the 19th ultimo, from the collector of customs at San Francisco, Cal., in which he states that he has been advised by the United States consul at Hong-Kong of the shipment from that port for Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands, of several cargoes of sugar, and the consul expresses fear that such sugar may he intended for transshipment for the United States as the products of the Hawaiian Islands. The collector of customs at San Francisco is alive to the importance of preventing any such fraud, if intended, upon the revenue of the United States. I will thank you, however, to correspond with our minister at those islands, and ascertain whether at the present time the Hawaiian Government imposes a duty upon imported sugars, and, if so, at what rate; also to report the arrival of any of the cargoes of sugars referred to if they shall arrive at any ports of those islands, and whether it has been the custom since the treaty went into effect to import sugars into the Sandwich Islands for consumption there, and so release an equal portion of the products of those islands for shipment to this country.

A commission which I have appointed is shortly to proceed to San Francisco to investigate charges made during the last Congress that under the treaty with the Hawaiian Islands sugars have been imported free of duty which were not fairly covered by the terms of the treaty. It may be well, therefore, when making any report to your Department on the subject, that our minister send a copy of it direct to the collector of customs at San Francisco, for the use of such commission.

Very respectfully,

CHAS. J. FOLGER,
Secretary.

Collector Sullivan to Mr. Folger.

Custom-House, San Francisco, Cal.,
Collector’s Office , April 19, 1883.

Sir: A letter has been received at this office from the United States consul at Hong-Kong advising of the shipment of several cargoes of sugar from that port to Honolulu, Sandwich Islands, and expressing a fear that it may be intended to transship said sugar there for the United States and attempt to obtain free entry thereof at this port as the product of the Hawaiian Islands.

I have taken proper precautions to prevent any such possible attempt from “being successful, and have forwarded a copy of Consul Mosby’s letter to the United States consul at Honolulu.

The Department is thus advised in order that instructions may be sent to the latter by the Department of State if deemed necessary.

I am, &c.,

C. L. SULLIVAN,
Collector.