No. 644.
Mr. de
Muruaga to Mr. Bayard.
Washington, July 12, 1887. (Received July 12.)
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Her Majesty the Queen Regent of Spain, has the honor to inform the honorable T. F. Bayard, Secretary of State of the United States, that the modus vivendi of October 27, 1886, having been extended until the 31st of December next, the undersigned, in obedience to the instructions of his Government, considers that the time has arrived for formalizing that agreement by rectifying it with the additions contained in his note of the 1st of February last past, and agreed to by the honorable Secretary of State in his reply of the 7th of that month.
The undersigned therefore proposes, if the Department of State has no objections, that Article I be worded as follows:
- 1.
- It is positively agreed that from this date an absolute equalization of tonnage dues and imposts shall at once be applied to the productions of or articles proceeding from the United States or any other foreign country when carried in vessels belonging to citizens of the United States, and under the American flag, to the islands of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippines, and that no higher or other tonnage dues or imposts shall be levied upon said vessels and the goods carried in them, as aforesaid, than are paid by Spanish vessels and their cargoes under similar circumstances.
- 2.
- On the above conditions the President of the United States shall at once issue a proclamation declaring that discriminating tonnage dues and imposts in the United States are suspended and discontinued as regards Spanish vessels and produce, manufactures, or merchandise imported therein into the United States proceeding from Spain, from the aforesaid possessions, and from the Philippine Islands, and also from all other countries belonging to the Crown of Spain, or from any foreign country.
This protocol of an agreement is offered by the Government of Spain and accepted by that of the United States as a full and satisfactory notification of the facts above recited.
It would be well, in the opinion of the undersigned, for the agreement thus supplemented to be signed and sealed, in order that it may possess the necessary validity, and for its contents to be transmitted to the Treasury Department for the information of collectors of customs in the United States.
The undersigned, etc.,