No. 394.
Mr. Stallo
to Mr. Bayard.
Rome, July 29, 1887. (Received August 13.)
Sir: On the 10th of May, 1887, I received your instruction No. 60, dated April 27, inclosing a copy of a dispatch from Mr. Carroll, our consul at Palermo, relating to the refusal of the Italian Government to accord free entry to some flags sent him officially by the Department.
In compliance with your instructions, I brought the matter to the attention of the foreign office immediately after the receipt of your letter and was informed that by reason of the recent changes in the foreign office, and also by reason of the fact that the whole subject of Italian, customs and import duties would soon be under debate in the Italian Parliament, nothing definite could be done for the time being, but that the matter would be favorably considered at the proper time. Since then the health of Mr. Depretis, minister of foreign affairs, has been such that it has been impossible to hold any extended discussion with him, but there is now hope that during the month of August he will be sufficiently restored to resume the active discharge of his duties.
As 1 expect to be in Stradella (Mr. Depretis’s place of residence) during the last half of the month of August, I shall take occasion to wait upon him there, if he is able to receive me, and call his attention to the subject again. It is not improbable, however, that nothing definite will be determined in the matter until there has been another council of the ministers after Mr. Depretis’s return to Rome in October or November. I shall, of course, report at the proper time.
I have, etc.,