No. 31.
Mr. Hall to Mr. Hunter.

No. 287.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instruction No. 184, of the 13th ultimo, and to refer you in reply to my dispatch No. 263, of the 1st of the same month.

As no complaints of losses sustained by our citizens in consequence of the repeal of the law of May 22, 1883, making Limon a free port for ten years, have yet reached this legation, there appears to be no necessity at present for further correspondence on the subject with the Costa Rican Government. It seems that the Government has permitted the free importation of all goods that were ordered under the guarantees of the former law, and has thus, for the time at least, avoided motives for complaint.

The decree of the 5th September last, referred to in your instruction, granting the right to import certain articles for the use of the Limon district, does not, I understand, become a law until ratified by Congress.

I have, &c.,

HENRY C. HALL.