Mr. Bayard to Mr. Strobel.
Washington, November 4, 1885.
Sir: I have received your No. 439, of the 13th ultimo, and the copy which you inclose of a note received from the minister of state, reporting the refusal of the minister of finance to return the duty collected at Barcelona on a cargo of old metal shipped from Cuba by Mr. F. B. Hamel, an American citizen.
You remark that the question is still unsettled, notwithstanding the minister’s note, since the decision of the note “is before the contenciosa division of the council of state, which has the power to review on appeal the decisions of ministers of the crown in special cases.”
You state that the tariff of Spain in 1876 and later required half the ordinary duties to be levied on products of the Antilles, and that article 317 of the regulations thereunder contemplated all “useless or worn-out scraps of any metal” brought from the Antilles to be the actual product of those islands, and therefore liable to half rate duties. But in 1882, you say, a law was passed which “allowed the products of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines to be admitted free of duty, except tobacco, aguardiente, sugar, cocoa, chocolate, and coffee,” and for more than a year after this law was passed that old iron or scrap metal from these islands was admitted free, as a product thereof, and several of Mr. Hamel’s cargoes were thus admitted. Suddenly the rule was changed and Mr. Hamel was taxed on a certain cargo, and it is the duty thus levied that is now under consideration.
Your reflections on the arguments of the note which you inclose appear just, and you can very properly reply to the note in the sense of your dispatch. It seems, however, that the treatment of old iron as a product of the Antilles when shipped thence was a matter of regulation only. It was just as true then as now that the original iron came from various quarters other than the Spanish West Indies, except that part which was mined and manufactured there. It would be wholly impracticable to attempt a separation of such metal from that which came originally from outside these islands. The law has certainly relieved part of nearly every possible cargo of old metal from duty, and if it is impossible to determine exactly what proportion, the importer should have the benefit of the doubt, and not suffer because of the ambiguity or obscurity of laws subjecting him to onerous taxation.
I am, &c.,