Office of the Historian

No. 340.
Mr. Foster to Mr. Frelinghuysen.

[Extract.]
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, January 3, 1884. (Received January 23.)
No. 134.]

Sir: My Nos. 131 and 132 and previous dispatches have informed you of the steps taken and the progress made in my efforts to induce the Spanish Government to bring about an improvement in the commercial relations of Cuba and Porto Rico with the United States. I am gratified to be able to announce that my efforts have been crowned with a fair degree of success in the signing with the Spanish Minister of State, at 7 o’clock p.m. on yesterday, of the agreement which I have the honor to transmit with this dispatch.

  • Article 1 of this agreement admits the products of the United States to the benefit of the third column of the tariffs of Cuba and Porto Rico, being thereby exempted from the 30 to 60 per cent, extra duty of the fourth column, under which they have heretofore been admitted. But its greatest gain is in securing the abandonment by Spain, so far as the United States is concerned, of the differential flag system, against which our Government has so long remonstrated.
  • Article 2 restores the Cuban market to the Florida fishermen, whose large and profitable trade was broken up by the Spanish order of March 13, 1882.
  • Article 3 settles, so far as relates to the Spanish West Indies, the irritating question of Spanish consular tonnage fees on cargoes collected in our ports. I, of course, understand that it would have been better to have secured a full concession from Spain of the international illegality of levying and collecting an export tax by foreign officials in our own ports; but as in its application it was mainly a burden on our West Indian commerce, and as the agreement related exclusively to that commerce, I thought it wise to accept the concession in this limited form. I regard it as a virtual yielding of the whole question, and I have no doubt the practice will be entirely abandoned, as soon as the necessary legislation can be had to supply the deficit in the consular budget.
  • Article 4 provides for the removal of the extra duty of 10 per cent. ad valorem on cargoes brought from the Antilles under the Spanish flag, which our Government imposed in retaliation of the Spanish differential flag duty. The latter being abolished, the removal of the 10 per cent. duty follows as a consequence.

For the fuller information of the Department of the Treasury, articles 5 and 6 will be made the subject of a separate dispatch.

To enable both Governments to issue the proclamation and orders required by the agreement, and to give ample notice to their respective officials and shipping, article 7 provides that the stipulations of the agreement shall go into effect on the 1st of March next.

Article 8, relating to negotiations for a treaty of commerce and navigation, will also be made the subject of a separate dispatch.

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I am, &c.,

JOHN W. FOSTER.