[Inclosure 1 in No. 12.]
Mr. Curry to Mr.
Moret.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid
,
March 14,
1888.
Excellency: I have been instructed to call the
attention of the Government of Her Majesty the Queen Regent to what
appears to be a serious infringement of the principle of perfect
equality between American and Spanish vessels plying between the United
States and ports of the Island of Cuba which is assumed to have been
established by the present modus vivendi.
During the correspondence which led to the signing of the agreement of
October 27, 1886, I had the honor, on the 10th of April of the same
year, to submit to your [Page 679]
excellency a memorandum, of which the following, translated and printed
on page 12 of the Spanish Red Book, is an extract:
“In continuation of the representation which my Government has heretofore
made, and regrets to he under the necessity of repeating, on the
practice of Cuban authorities, adverse to the established agreements
between Spain and the United States, I may state that Spanish vessels
arriving at Cuban ports from Spain, not exceeding twenty days out, and
sailing from Cuba with cargo to the ports of the United States, are
exempt in clearing from all tonnage duties in Cuban ports, while
American steamers, sailing from Cuba with cargo to the ports of the
United States, are required to l>ay, on clearing from Cuban ports, 6½
cents per ton on their cargoes, if mail steamers or $1.35 if not such.
Spanish sailing vessels arriving from Spain at Cuban ports and clearing
from Cuba, with cargo to the ports of the United States pay in Cuban
ports 25 cents per ton on their cargoes destined for the United States,
while American sailing vessels clearing from Cuba with cargo to the
ports of the United States pay in Cuban ports $1.35 per ton on their
cargoes. Thus discriminating or countervailing duties on tonnage are
levied urpon vessels of the United States in Cuban ports.”
The other causes of complaint mentioned in that memorandum have since
been removed, but I regret to state that the one described in the
paragraph above quoted still exists, to the serious injury of American
vessels plying between the United States and Cuba, and to the great
dissatisfaction of owners of those vessels.
The pith of the objection made by my Government is simply this: That as a
result of certain regulations of which article 5 of the Cuban tariff may
be taken as an example, a Spanish vessel making the trip between the
Antilles and the United States, perhaps side by side with an American
vessel, has certain material advantages in tonnage dues which the
American vessel has not, because some port in the Peninsula was the
original point of departure of the Spanish vessel, which had made a
voyage from Spain to Cuba before undertaking the voyage from Cuba to the
United States.
Two illustrations will give a clear idea of the injustice to which
American vessels are subjected: 1. An American sailing vessel of 500
tons pro forma net register pays tonnage on
inward and outward cargoes in the ports of Cuba at the rate of $1.35 per
ton, or $675.
A Spanish sailing vessel of the same tonnage coming from Spain to Cuba
pays on inward cargo, at 37½ cents, $187.50, and on leaving Cuba for the
United States pays on the 500 tons net register at the rate of 25 cents
per ton, or $125, or $312.50 inward and outward.
The difference in favor of the Spanish sailing vessel is therefore
$362.50.
2. A Spanish regular trading steam-ship, coming loaded from Spain to Cuba
in less than twenty days, brought 1,460 tons of cargo and then took out
2,100 tons of cargo for the United States, without paying any tonnage
dues, while a regular American steamer would, when the joint inward and
outward cargo does not exceed its register tonnage, surfers an
inequality of $2,225.
Your excellency will at once see that the “perfect equality” called for
by the agreement does not exist, and that Spanish vessels competing with
the vessels of the United States in the trade between the United States
and the Antilles, or between these two countries and any foreign port,
must be placed on equal terms with the American vessels, irrespective of
the point of departure, which is entirely irrelevant to the terms of the
agreement. As long as this condition of equality does not exist the
agreement itself fails to execute the purposes for which it was framed.
Judging, therefore, from the promptness with which Her Majesty’s
Government basin the past remedied just demands based on existing
agreements, it is the belief my Government that these illegal
discriminations will be speedily suppressed.
Hoping that the matter will receive from your excellency at an early date
the attention which its importance deserves, I gladly avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 12.]
Mr. Curry to Mr.
Moret.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid
,
April 20,
1888.
Excellency: On the 14th of last month I had the
honor to call your excellency’s attention to a serious infringement of
the present modus vivendi between Spain and the
United States by a material discrimination in tonnage dues in favor of
vessels of the former country where a voyage has been made from some
Antillean or Spanish port before the voyage from Cuba to the United
States.
A case of this unjust discrimination has just occurred at Cienfuegos,
where the American schooner Uranus, of about 346
tons burden, came in ballast from Ponce, [Page 680] Porto Rico, to Cienfuegos, loaded molasses for the
United States at the latter port, and was compelled to pay 37 cents per
register ton duty on her outward cargo.
A Spanish vessel would have paid under the same circumstances only 25
cents per ton.
I am instructed to bring this case to the attention of the Government of
Her Majesty the Queen Regent, and to request that the money representing
the amount of the discrimination thus improperly exacted may be
returned.
With an expression also of the hope that an early reply from your
excellency to my above-mentioned note of March 14 will enable me to
inform my Government of the prompt and satisfactory disposal of this
cause of complaint,
I avail, etc.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
12.—Translation.]
Marquis de la Vega de
Armijo to Mr. Belmont.
Ministry of
State,
Palace
,
March 1, 1889.
Excellency: In reply to the notes dated March
14 and April 20 last, I have the honor to inform your excellency that,
in accordance with information conveyed to me by my colleague the
minister of the colonies on February 26 last, the governor-general of
Cuba was on said date notified that in view of the claims growing out of
the excess of tonnage dues collected from American when compared with
those collected from Spanish vessels, and the result being that by such
collection there has been an infringement of the provisions of the
commercial agreement of May 26, 1888, between Spain and the North
American Republic, since that agreement established absolute equality
between national vessels and those of said Republic, orders have been
given that the Treasury authorities, and more particularly the
collectors of customs of that island, should in the collection of dues
to be paid by American vessels pay attention to said agreement, and that
the sum in excess collected from the brig Uranus
by the Cienfuegos custom-house be refunded to that vessel.
I avail, etc.,
Marquis de la Vega de
Armijo.
