[Inclosure.]
memorandum.
By section 14 of an act approved June 26, 1884, to remove
certain burdens on the American merchant marine, and
encourage the American foreign carrying trade, and for
other purposes,” it is enacted:
“That, in lieu of the tax on tonnage of 30 cents per ton
per annum heretofore imposed by law, a duty of 3 cents
per ton, not to exceed in the aggregate 15 cents per ton
in any one year, is hereby imposed at each entry on all
vessels which shall be entered in any port of the United
States from any foreign port or place in North America,
Central America, the West India Islands, the Bahama
Islands, the Bermuda Islands, or the Sandwich Islands,
or Newfoundland; and a duty of 6 cents per ton, not to
exceed 30 cents per ton per annum, is hereby imposed at
each entry upon all vessels which shall be entered in
the United States from any other foreign ports.”
Article VIII of the treaty concluded between Sweden and
Norway and the United States of America, July 4, 1827,
reads as follows:
“The two high contracting parties engage not to impose
upon the navigation between their respective
territories, in the vessels of either, any tonnage or
other duties, of any kind or denomination, which shall
be higher or other than those which shall be imposed on
every other navigation except that which they have
reserved to themselves, respectively, by the sixth
article of the present treaty.”
By virtue of the said article, a higher tonnage-tax than
that imposed by section 14 of the above-cited act of
June 26, 1884, on vessels arriving from ports or places
in the countries therein mentioned, that is to say, 3
cents per ton at each entry, not to exceed in the
aggregate 15 cents per ton in any one year, can not,
after the entering into force of said act, be imposed
upon vessels arriving in any port of the United States
from any port or place in Sweden or Norway.
Washington,
June 17,
1885.
