[Inclosure in No. 9.]
Mr. Read to Mr.
Smythe.
U.
S. Consulate,
San
Domingo, April 2,
1894.
Sir: I have to inform you that I have
received your dispatch dated January 27, 1894, numbered 14,
inclosing copy of letter from Messrs. Smith, Gregory & Winters
to the Department of State, directing me “to make inquiry and report
the facts whether or not a vessel which is exempted by concession
from the payment of tonnage dues at one port of San Domingo is
subject to them at a second port to which it goes to load a return
cargo.” In obedience to said instructions, I have to report as
follows: The law of San Domingo requires the payment of port charges
by a vessel bringing cargo to or taking it from its ports. These
port charges are imposed only once during the same voyage without
regard to the number of ports at which the vessel may enter, and
payment must be made at the first port of entry.
[Page 214]
When a concession from the Government is relied upon to exempt a
vessel from the operation of this law, reference must be had to the
language of the concession itself to determine to what extent the
operation of the law is suspended in the particular case.
In the matter of the Lavinia M. Snow, which is
the especial subject of my investigation and report, it appears that
this vessel was chartered by New York merchants to load a cargo of
lumber for Samana Bay, and that said charterers were to pay foreign
port charges. The vessel was chartered for the return voyage to
another merchant to load a cargo of sugar in Macoris, both ports
being within the territory of the Dominican Republic.
Messrs. Gregory, Smith & Winters state that the first charterers
were by concession (from the Dominican Government) exempted from the
payment of port charges, but do not claim this exemption, and it is
taken for granted that it did not exist on behalf of the second
charterer.
An inspection of the provisions of said concession relating to the
subject-matter of this report (copy of which is inclosed for your
information) shows that there is exempted from taxation certain
property materials, capital, etc., and from port charges vessels
which transport solely materials necessary to the construction and
repair of the concessionaires’ railroad; but it is especially
declared that the exemption does not apply in the case of export
duties on products of the soil, nor in the case of vessels in which
said products are exported.
The Lavinia M. Snow, deriving her claim to
exemption from port charges from the aforesaid concession, can have
no claim to greater exemption than is therein granted. When,
therefore, her employment in transporting “solely materials
necessary to the construction and repair of the concessionaires’
railroad” ceased, her right to exemption from port charges ceased,
and in taking other cargo, more especially of a product of the soil
and on behalf of a new charterer for a return voyage, she became
subject to the payment of port charges in accordance with the
general law, in whatever port she now first took cargo or made
entry.
I note that Messrs. Gregory, Smith & Winters state the port
charges as $1.65 per ton. Since June, 1892, port charges have been
$2.65 per ton, a fact which I respectfully suggest be communicated
to the shipping community in case of more extended misapprehension
as to present charge.
I have, etc.,
Juan A. Read,
U. S. Vice-Consul,
Acting.
[Subinclosure.—Translation.]
Copy article 7 of the concession of the railroad
from Samana Bay to La Veza.
Art. 7. The railroad and all its
accessories in movable and immovable property, as well as its
capital and the rent produced, shall enjoy exemption from all kinds
of imposts and fiscal and municipal contributions during fifteen
years only, and also the vessels in which are imported only the
materials necessary for the construction and reparation of the
railroad shall be exempted from the port charges and the said
materials from custom duties.
This franchise shall not be enjoyed by the products of the soil in
regard to export duties nor by the vessels in which the export is
made.
Concession May 5, 1893.
(Collection of laws, p. 276, No. 8.)
