No. 53.
Mr. Trail
to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Rio de
Janeiro, March 1, 1887.
(Received April 9.)
No. 74.]
Sir: On the morning of the 25th ult. I received at
Petropolis the following cable:
Use good offices for extending concession to Pedro Segundo American
Cable Company.
Bayard.
[Page 59]
To which I replied on the 28th:
Telegram received; action taken with representative.
The company’s resident agent informed me that the concession would expire
March 4th, and that he had not yet received instructions from New York
concerning an extension of the concession, As but a week remained from the
time the Department’s telegram reached me to the date of the expiration of
the concession, I deemed it advisable to cable reply, thus informing the
company that the request for an extension had been made in time. Had the
agent been away from the city and the petition not put in by the 3d of March
the enterprise would have been considered as finally abandoned.
I used my “good offices” by addressing a note to the minister of foreign
affairs, a copy of which is hereto annexed, and by requesting the French
legation to furnish me with information concerning the French line in the
West Indies, the said information for the use and at the request of the
company’s representative.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 74.]
Mr. Trail to Baron
de Cotegipe.
Legation of the United states,
Rio de Janeiro, February 28,
1887.
Sir: I am informed that the concession granted
to the Dom Pedro Segundo and American Cable Company will expire the
early part of the coming month. As your excellency is well aware, this
company has been unable to carry out its plans within the allotted time,
owing to the opposition, it has met with from rival companies, and
latterly an additional delay was caused by the unsatisfactory condition
of the French line, with which the Dom pedro Segundo is to connect in
the West Indies.
The company petitions the Imperial Government for an extension of its
concession, and I am just in receipt of a cablegram from the honorable
Secretary of State, at Washington, which expresses the earnest desire
that Imperial Government may be pleased to grant the extension asked
for.
The present telegraphic rates between Brazil and the United States are so
enormously high that the public can indulge in this means of
communication only at rare intervals, and thus the business interests of
both countries suffer from the deprivation, in part, of what is
elsewhere one of the ordinary agents of commerce. The laying of another
line—competition—could not fail to remedy this state of affairs.
The United States Government could not but deeply regret to see the
forced abardonment of an enterprise that promised to bring Brazil into
closer connection with it. The interest manifested in this undertaking
by prominent Brazilians, and the fact that the necessity for the line
was fully recognized when the consession was originally granted, lead me
to hope that the favor of an extension will be granted at an early
day.
The present condition of the company and the matter in detail will be
respectfully presented to the proper Imperial department in a petition
now being prepared by the company’s representative in Rio de Janeiro,
Prof Orville A. Derby, for which I solicit your careful
consideration.
I avail, etc.,