Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 6, 1886
No. 409.
Mr. Curry
to Mr. Bayard.
Madrid, October 22, 1886. (Received November 6.)
Sir: A late telegram from yourself prompted another effort on the part of this legation to secure the equalization of tonnage duties in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. I inclose a copy of the letter addressed [Page 816] to the minister of state. This letter was read to the minister and early rectification of the wrong was promised. On the 20th I received a reply from the minister, a copy of which, with the Spanish text, I have the honor also to inclose. * * *
I have, &c.,
Madrid, October 11, 1886.
Excellency: In the memorandum of suggestions as the basis for an agreement between Spain and the United States, the third item or article suggested “reciprocal abolition of all tonnage duties and the placing of the vessels of one nation on the same footing as national vessels in regard to port charges. My Government asks the equalization on the most favorable basis of tonnage dues in Cuba and Porto Rico, so that vessels of the United States shall be treated the same as Spanish vessels making like voyages. Under our laws vessels of all nationalities are charged in American ports tonnage dues to the amount of 30 cents per ton, once only in each year, but in Cuba and Porto Rico much higher duties, amounting to 65 cents, or $1.30 per ton, according to the flag, are collected on every entrance into port, and this is a heavy and unequal tax on American vessels.” In the same memorandum, the attention of Her Majesty’s Government was directed to the onerous fines and penalties imposed for technical causes and enforced with severity. The vexatious moiety system practiced in the Antilles was animadverted upon and a reform was earnestly urged.
As these regulations, so contrary to the business principles on which mutually profitable commerce is based, were specially injurious to the United States, which buys about 95 per cent, of the sugar exported from Cuba, it was hoped that early steps would have been taken for their modification or removal. No direct response has, however, been made to the memorandum.
* * * * * * *
Your excellency afterwards communicated, for transmission to my Government, the royal order of 22d June, abolishing the differential flag duties as complained of by the minister in the name of his Government. In that order occur these words:
“In regard to navigation dues, although the equalization of American with Spanish vessels is not provided for in the agreement, it is the will of Her Majesty, from deference to the wishes of said nation, that as soon as it is shown by the representative of said States in that island that his Government has granted this benefit to Spanish vessels, the authorities in Cuba shall proceed to apply it to American vessels in exact reciprocity and in harmony with what was established by the royal decree of 4th June, 1878.”
The minister of ultramar, in the argument in relation to differential flag duties, as effected by the agreement of February, 1884, dated October 2, speaks of the “courteous concessions made by the ministers of state and ultramar in respect of navigation dues and port and consular taxes.”
In view of these distinct and gratifying statements, the Government of the United States learns, with surprise and sorrow, that in the province of Cuba tonnage dues on American are not equalized to those paid by Spanish vessels. The royal order has wrought no amelioration whatever in favor of American interests in Cuba and Porto Rico, nor secured the “benefits” which the minister of ultramar supposed, as the tonnage dues are collected as hitherto.
I flatter myself that the Spanish Government will seize the earliest and most effective mode of having its orders promptly and fully obeyed in Cuba, and that your excellency will enable me, without delay, to remove any apprehension of wrong that may have been occasioned by remote officials.
Confidently expecting an early and favorable answer,
I remain, &c.,
Palace, October 19, 1886.
Excellency: In answer to your excellency’s note of the 11th current relating to tonnage and port dues, I have the honor to inform you that, although all discussion over this matter seems altogether useless, after the proclamation of the President of [Page 817] the United States of the 14th, His Majesty’s Government will he ready to sustain and ratify the spirit of the royal order of 22d June last in regard to this matter, if a settlement of the commercial relations between the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico and the United States can he reached.
I avail myself, &c.
Palace, October 20, 1886.
Excellency: Your note of yesterday which I have just received is the answer to that which I had the honor to address to your Excellency under date of 17th. In it I answered in my turn those which, under date of 4th and 14th, and the memorandum dated 5th, your excellency had been pleased to address to me, in which the questions relating to the interpretation of the agreement of 1884 and equalization of the flags were exclusively dealt with. That relating to the tonnage fees was dealt with by your excellency in another special note, dated the 11th instant, to which I had the pleasure to answer on yesterday. I think as your excellency does that for the solution of the present difficulty the discussion of the past is not of great interest, but the Spanish Government will always wish to have it stated that on its part it has not given any occasion for the measure taken by the President of the United States on the 14th instant re-establishing without previous notice the discriminating duties which were suspended by the agreement of 13th February, 1884.
Only thus it is accounted for that this agreement has been in force during more than two years and a half without the President thinking himself obliged to take such a measure, a lapse of time which if in any case it had great value and significance increases in force in presence of the literal text of the paragraph 4228 of the Statutes of the United States which your Excellency was pleased to mention in his yesterday’s note.
There is no room for supposing that the proclamation of President Arthur was worded in a sense different from that constantly given by His Majesty’s Government because as it results from its reading, in the agreement it is said productos and procedencias from the United States, which phrase is not equivalent to that of productos or procedencias, which is now employed. And this is accounted for because the essence of the agreement such as President Arthur understood it, consisted in that the products and articles proceeding from the United States should not pay in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico any discriminating duty in comparison with the Spanish flag, which is what I have had the honor of holding, which the Spanish Government offered, and which in my last propositions I have formulated in a clear and express manner and leaving to the Government of the United States the right of indicating the cases when the duty levied on American vessels may he termed discriminating, the most effectual guarantee which could be established.
Thus, and only thus, it is accounted for that the whole of our discussion has been based on the equality of flags, and not on the class of duties which either one or the other merchandise should have to pay. Such an interpretation is contrary, not only to the text of the agreement, but to that of the proclamation of President Arthur, and the Spanish Government cannot admit that during two years and seven months, and America having as representatives two diplomats such as your Excellency and your predecessor, so simple a question should have been discussed to give rise at last to so unforeseen a measure as that of President Cleveland.
This being stated and the absolute good faith with which the Spanish Government has discussed this question being affirmed, it is my duty to answer the remarks which your excellency is pleased to make to me, by saying first of all, that the Spanish Government cannot enter into the negotiation such as your excellency proposes, and which would he equivalent to a new agreement, under the pressure of the proclamation of 14th instant which places the mercantile relations of the Antilles with the United States in a truly exceptional position. If that pressure disappears, and if the President’s proclamation which is to begin to be in force on the 25th October, is extended up to the same day of the month of November, the Spanish Government will be disposed to discuss within the faculties given to it by law a new agreement with the United States of North America, in which satisfaction being given to the claims embraced in points I and II, marked by your excellency, analogous privileges may be granted to Spain in relation with the exportation of her products.
The interests of both countries would thus remain attended to and the natural dignity of both Governments satisfied, being able to discuss the new agreement under a footing of equality and without the pressure imposed to-day on both countries by circumstances.
[Page 818]Your excellency will please advise me whether you are authorized for that negotiation, and whether the Government of the United States, acceding to the reasons which I have had the occasion to state to you, is disposed to the extension of one month which I have just suggested to you, in which case we could proceed to the immediate discussion of the bases of the agreement.
I avail myself, &c.,