No. 846.
Mr. Romero to Mr. Bayard.
Washington , January 7, 1888. (Received January 9.)
Mr. Secretary: The agents of the International Company of Mexico, established at Hartford, addressed to me on the 12th of December last a statement setting forth that the steamer Monserrat, designed to run under the Mexican flag between the port of San Diego, California, and the ports of Guatemala on the Pacific, and intermediate ports, was detained by the customs authorities of San Diego, in September last, on account of the want of papers, and was sentenced to pay additional tonnage duty, in conformity to sections 4219 and 4225 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, of $1 per ton, which amounted to $849. It was stated to me, further, that this vessel had been bought last June, at Cette, France, by the said company, intended for the service aforesaid, and that it had sailed from Cardiff, Wales, under a provisional commission certified by the Mexican consul at Cardiff; that on approaching Salina Cruz, on the Mexican Pacific coast, on the way to San Diego, the papers were lost through the upsetting of a small boat to which they had been transferred; for which reason I was solicited to address your Department to make known that the steamer in question was Mexican, in order that the sum paid as additional tonnage duty might be returned. Not having official data to assure myself of the correctness of the preceding information, I sent the statement referred to to my Government, and to-day I have received instructions from Señor Mariscal, dated City of Mexico, the 27th of December last, in which he tells me that having consulted the department of war and navy of Mexico with regard to this matter, it appears that the Monserrat had the right to sail under the Mexican flag; that the loss of her papers was really accidental, and that orders had been given to the Mexican marine authorities to replace them in due form.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,