[Inclosure in No. 121.]
Mr. Manning to Mr.
Mariscal.
Legation of the United States,
Mexico, April 19,
1887.
Sir I have the honor to call your excellency’s
attention to a very earnest letter, of date April 2, from Messrs. F.
Alexandre & Sons to Mr. Bayard, in which they complain that they
have not yet any information of what is to be done by the two
Governments in the matter of discrimination by Mexico of 2 per cent.
less duties on goods imported into the Mexican ports of Progreso and
Vera Cruz, when imported ex Spanish line of steamers.
Messrs. Alexandre & Sons in that letter give a list of the steamers
composing their line, which is as follows: City of
Puebla, 2,643 tons; City of Alexandria,
2,480 tons; City of Washington, 2,635 tons, and
Manhattan, 1,600 tons, all of which are owned
by American citizens, and the first three by Alexandre & Sons.
They also make exhibit of the effect produced by the discrimination
aforesaid upon their business; in the first quarter of 1886 the freights
to Vera Cruz and Progreso being $48,096, while the freights for the same
period of 1887 were reduced to $26,139, thus showing a falling off of
$21,957.
With this statement of the case, it is almost needless for me to say to
your excellency that this is a matter of supreme importance to Messrs.
Alexandre &. Sons, but
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its
effect as to them is only a pecuniary one, while my Government regards
it as presenting a grave question, because it seriously affects all the
shipping interests of the United States. The Government of the United
States is quite unwilling to believe that any differential customs
duties are knowingly and purposely enforced in Mexico to the detriment
of the commercial interests of the United States, but unless the
complaint of Alexandre &. Sons be quite unfounded, it seems certain
that such differential customs duties are actually enforced to the
detriment of our commercial interests.
I had the honor to receive from your excellency, two days ago, an
assurance that you would soon receive an answer from the department of
public works, responsive to your inquiries relative to this matter, and
I beg to say that the Department of State at Washington is impatient at
the-delay already experienced.
I take pleasure, etc.,
