[Inclosure 1 in No. 58.]
memorandum for señor moret.
I. Maritime associations, ship, owners, shipping merchants, and exporters
in the United States continue to present to my Government petitions and
protests respecting the manner in which the commercial agreement of
February 13, 1884, is being observed by the Spanish authorities. The
method of the enforcement of this agreement by the Spanish authorities,
as the Spanish Government is fully advised, has been a source of
repeated and earnest complaint on the part of the shipping and exports
interests of the United States, and is far from being satisfactory to my
Government.
II. A reference to the commercial and diplomatic relations which preceded
and led to the agreement shows that the main object of that compact was
to abolish the discriminating flag-duties which the two Governments had
established in the trade between the United States and the Spanish
Antilles, and this is plainly stipulated in Articles 1 and 2.
III. The suppression of the differential flag-duties provided for in
Article I necessarily meant that in the trade from the United States to
Cuba and Porto Rico the American flag and the cargo covered by it should
be treated in those islands precisely upon the same terms as the Spanish
flag. If this had not been the case, my Government would have had no
power to enforce Article II. Your excellency will see that the agreement
is a simple executive act on the part of the United States. The
authority to enter into and execute it was derived solely from section
4228 of the Revised Statutes. By this section Congress empowered the
President to suspend the discriminating duties imposed upon the products
and vessels of certain foreign countries, including the Spanish
Antilles.
The express condition on which the authority to suspend was granted was
that satisfactory proof should be given that no discriminating duties
were imposed upon the vessels of the United States and their
cargoes.
The notice given by the Spanish Government, after
signing the agreement, that it would put it into execution on
the 1st of March following, was accepted by my
Government as a sufficient proof under the act of Congress I have
cited, and the President’s proclamation was accordingly issued,
suspending the 10 per cent discriminating
duties imposed on Spanish vessels, carrying into our ports cargoes
from Cuba and Porto Rico. It appears, however, that Spanish
vessels are permitted to carry foreign goods transshipped in American
ports to Cuba and Porto Rico, and have them admitted under the third
column of the tariffs of those islands, while similar goods, carried in
American vessels, are required to pay the higher duties of the fourth
column. This, as it must be apparent to your excellency, is a manifest
discrimination against the American flag, the imposition of a different
duty, and consequently a violation of Article I of the agreement. [Page 796] The President of the United
States is authorized to continue the suspension of the I discriminating
duty so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels of the United States
and their cargoes shall continue, “and no longer.”
IV. My predecessor, Mr. Foster, very earnestly, nearly two years ago,
called the attention of the Spanish Government to the matter, and
declared, as he was perfectly competent to do, that if his Government
had understood that the agreement would be so construed and observed by
Spain, it never would have been signed or put in execution. It appears
from Mr. Foster’s communication that the then Spanish
minister of state acquiesced in the view taken by the Government of
the United States, and slated that he had recommended to the
minister of ultramar that a royal order be issued placing American
vessels in the Antilles upon the same footing as Spanish vessels in
respect to foreign goods carried by them.
I am instructed by my Government to ask the prompt, careful, and serious
attention of the Spanish Government to this continuing grievance in the
confident hope that early measures will be
devised in consonance with the stipulations of a formal agreement and
the reasonable views of the United States. It would be a source of
deepest regret if the President, most anxious to avoid any possible
irritation with a Government between which and the United States most
amicable relations exist, should be forced by the unwarranted
interpretation, placed upon the agreement of 1884, to withdraw the
suspension of the 10 per cent, discriminating duty. This can be avoided
by the action indicated by Señor Elduayen, in placing American vessels;
upon the same footing as Spanish vessels. The liberal and friendly
spirit manifested i by the present ministry justifies my Government in
the belief that the action it seeks can be brought about at an early day, and encourages me to expect from
your Excellency such immediate measures as will effectuate the spirit
and letter of the agreement of February 13, 1884.
In continuation of the representation which my Government has heretofore
made, and regrets to be under the necessity of repeating, on the
practice of Cuban authorities, adverse to the established agreement
between Spain and the United States, I may state that Spanish vessels,
arriving at Cuban ports from Spain, not exceeding twenty days out and
sailing from Cuba with cargo to the ports of the United States, I are
exempt in clearing from all tonnage duties in Cuban ports, while
American steamers, sailing from Cuba with cargo to the ports of the
United States, are required to pay, on clearing from Cuban ports, 62½
cents per ton on their cargoes, if mail steamers, or $1.35 if not such.
Spanish sailing vessels arriving from Spain at Cuban ports and clearing
from Cuba, with cargo, to the ports of the United States, pay in Cuban
ports 25 cents per ton on their cargoes destined for the United States,
while American I sailing vessels clearing from Cuba with cargo to the
ports of the United States pay in i Cuban ports $1.35 per ton on their
cargoes. Thus discriminating or countervailing duties on tonnage are
levied upon the vessels of the United States in Cuban ports.
The laws of the United States authorize the President, on certain
conditions of reciprocity, for which satisfactory proof shall be given,
to suspend or discontinue the discriminating foreign duties on tonnage
and imports. The object of Congress was to; secure for American vessels
the same treatment as was accorded to foreign vessels. In 1877 Señor
Mantilla appealed to the provisions of the law in order to secure the
exemption of Spanish vessels from the discriminating duties levied on
Spanish vessels in the United States, and declared that Spain “had not
levied on American tonnage any greater or other charges than she levied
on Spanish tonnage,” and he supported his declaration by a certificate
from the auditor of customs at Havana.
Upon this declaration being confirmed by the ministry at Madrid, the
Secretary of the Treasury directed the suppression of the discriminating
tonnage tax of which complaint had been made. The late tonnage
regulations at Havana, based upon the Spanish law of July, 1882, are in
plain opposition to the declaration of Señor Mantilla and the Spanish
ministry, and unless they are revoked they constitute such a
discrimination against American vessels as calls for the enforcement of
the corresponding measures indicated by Congress.
The instructions of my Government are so explicit that I must beg your
Excellency’s early and favorable attention to the matters embraced in
this memorandum.