Mr. Blaine to Mr.
Phelps.
Department
of State,
Washington, December 3,
1889.
No. 23.]Sir: I inclose a copy of a letter from the
Secretary of Agriculture, dated the 22d ultimo, in relation to a recent
press dispatch from Berlin concerning the German law in regard to the
importation of American cattle and hog products.
[Page 299]
The consul at Hamburg, with his dispatch No. 18 of the 6th ultimo, sends
hither a copy of the Hamburg quarantine law of 1879, copy of which I also
inclose, and states that this law, while issued by the Hamburg senate, is
identical in all the states and provinces of Germany.
If there is any other law bearing upon the subject, you will please procure a
few copies for the information of the Department and the Secretary of
Agriculture.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 23.]
Mr. Rusk to Mr.
Blaine.
Department of Agriculture,
Washington, November 22,
1889.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 19th instant inclosing a copy of a report
from the American consul at Cologne, Germany, upon a shipment of beef
cattle that was recently sent from the United States to that country. In
this connection, I would state that the following dispatch has recently
appeared in the newspapers of this country:
“Berlin, November 20.
“In the Reichstag the motion to rescind the law prohibiting the
importation of cattle was rejected, as was also a motion
permitting free importation of swine shipped directly to
slaughterhouses.”
I would respectfully request information as to whether there is such a
law in force in Germany, as indicated in the above dispatch, which
prohibits the importation of cattle from the United States.
Thanking you for the information contained in the report,
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
23.—Translation.]
Proclamation regarding the importation of cattle
from Great Britain and America.
For the prevention of the introduction of murrain, it is hereby ordered
that, until further notice, cattle arriving in the Hamburg state from
Great Britain, North or South America, either by water or by land,
shall, before being landed, be reported to the respective police
authorities and then be quartered, at the expense of the parties
interested, in a space prescribed by these authorities and isolated from
intercourse with inland cattle. In the same the cattle will be subjected
to 4 weeks’ veterinary observation and will not be admitted to free
intercourse until the appointed veterinary surgeon has, after the lapse
of this period, declared it to be free of contagious diseases.
Violations of this law will be punished with fines not exceeding 30 marks
($7.14), provided the severer penalties prescribed in section 328 of the
penal code have not been incurred.
Given in the meeting of the Senate, Hamburg, August 1, 1879.
