No. 483.
Mr. von
Alvensleben to Mr. Bayard.
Washington, January 24, 1888.
Mr. Secretary of State:
On the 25thof August, 1887, the chargé d’affaires of the United States at Berlin, acting under instructions from his Government, invited the attention of the Imperial Government to an act of Congress approved June 19, 1886, entitled “Ah act to abolish certain fees for official services to American vessels, and to amend the laws relating to shipping commissioners, seamen, and owners of vessels, and for other purposes.”
In the letter which he addressed to Count Berchem, then acting imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs, the chargé d’affaires of the United States pointed out that the provisions of said act were broad enough to cover either a reduction or a complete abolition by reciprocal action of tonnage and equivalent charges on navigation, and that it was open to any foreign country in all or any of whose ports a less charge is made than that now imposed in the ports of the United States, to obtain forthwith a reduction of the charge in the United States on vessels [Page 670] coming from such port or ports to an equality with that levied in the port or ports designated.
In accordance with instructions which I have received from my Government, I now have the honor to state, Mr. Secretary, that no tonnage or lighthouse dues, or any equivalent tax or taxes whatever, as referred to in said act of Congress of June 19, 1886, are imposed upon American vessels entering the ports of Germany, either by the Imperial Government or by the governments of the German maritime states, and that vessels belonging to the United States of America and their cargoes are not required, in German ports, to pay any fee or due of any kind or nature, or any import due higher or other than is payable by German vessels or their cargoes.
I have, consequently, the honor to respectfully ask that you may be pleased, Mr. Secretary of State, to cause a proclamation to be issued by the President of the United States, similar to that issued on the 22d of April, 1887, in favor of the navigation of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and setting forth that the collection of the whole of the duty of 6 cents per ton, not to exceed 30 cents per ton per annum (which is imposed by section 11 of the act of Congress of June 19, 1886), upon vessels entered in the ports of the United States from any of the ports of Germany, shall be suspended, and that such suspension shall continue so long as the reciprocal exemption of vessels belonging to citizens of the United States and their cargoes shall be continued in the ports of Germany.
At the same time I beg to state, while presenting the above declaration, that the Imperial Government reserves to itself all rights and privileges heretofore claimed under treaty stipulations, with regard to the treatment of German vessels entering American ports.
The careful examination of the laws and regulations relating to navigation of the different German states bordering on the sea having delayed the reply of the Imperial Government to the invitation of the United States Government, although the same state of affairs with regard to the treatment of vessels entering German ports was, as I had the honor to point out in my letter of February 15, 1886, already in existence on and before the date of the approval of the act of Congress of June 19, 1886, I trust that the United States Government will deem it proper that the tonnage dues or equivalent taxes imposed upon and levied from German ships in American ports since that date be refunded.
Accept, etc.,