Mr. Runyon to Mr.
Gresham.
Embassy
of the United States,
Berlin, October 29,
1894. (Received November 12.)
No. 146.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your cipher telegram on Sunday morning the 28th instant. When
it came I had just received information of the new prohibitory
regulation and had just written a dispatch to be sent to the State
Department on the subject, on the assumption that the Department was not
aware of the action of the German Government. Herewith I send a copy
(with translation) of the document promulgating the decree in Hamburg.
It will be noticed that it is dated on Saturday, October 27, while the
decree excluded all beef cattle and fresh beef sent from the United
States after the next day, Sunday, the 28th. At once, on the same day
and within a few hours from the time of the receipt of the telegram, I
applied for and obtained an interview with Baron von Marschall, the
imperial secretary of state for foreign affairs, on the subject and
discussed
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the matter with him
fully, presenting as forcibly as I was able (among others) all the views
and considerations expressed in your dispatch to me, and I strongly
urged that the interest of both countries demanded that the prohibition
be not enforced.
In a previous conversation with him he had represented the great
desirability of the repeal of the tariff tax on sugar from bounty-paying
countries, and I reported the substance of that conversation to you in
my dispatch on the subject of the patent law (No.
145, dated October 23, 1894). Baron von Marschall said he thought that
the time was not opportune for the action complained of because of the
liability to misconstruction—to be thought to be retaliatory merely—but
he insisted upon it, however, that it was not intended to be in any wise
retaliatory or to be so regarded, but was merely, and was so intended to
be, a sanitary regulation which had been deemed absolutely necessary for
the protection of cattle in Germany. He also disclaimed responsibility
for the action, and stated that it was taken at the instance of the
Prussian minister of agriculture. You will see, I may remark, by the
copy of the instrument promulgating the decree in Hamburg that the
action was by the German Government and was taken by the imperial
chancellor.
In view of my representations on the subject of the ability of the United
States to prevent the exportation of cattle affected with Texas fever,
and of the considerations which I presented to him of the extraordinary
sweeping character of the prohibition, which makes no discrimination
whatever and even includes American fresh beef, he promised to give the
matter such consideration as he could and asked me to send him in
writing the statement I had made verbally as to the ability of the
United States to prevent the exportation of cattle affected by Texas
fever. I prepared such statement and sent it accordingly, and I herewith
inclose a copy of it as part of the history of my action in the
matter.
I have the honor, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
146.—Translation.—Official gazette of the free and Hanse city
Hamburg.]
Proclamation of the Senate.
Saturday, October 27, 1894.
No. 111.]
Proclamation relating to the
prohibition of the importation from America of living beef
cattle and fresh beef.
The imperial chancellor, on the strength of paragraph 4, page 2, of
the imperial law of June 23, 1880, concerning protection against and
suppression of cattle diseases, after the arrival here of two
shipments of American cattle containing sick animals, and after the
certification by the imperial health office that the sickness is
“Texas fever,” has ordered the prohibition of the importation from
America of living beef cattle and fresh meat. On the strength of
paragraph 7 of the said law it is therefore ordered that—
The importation of living beef cattle and fresh beef from America is
forbidden. The importation will nevertheless be permitted of such
shipments as have left America before and including the 28th
instant. The cattle the importation of which, according to the above
provision, is still to be permitted must, however, be slaughtered at
once in the slaughterhouse at this place.
Offenses against this prohibition will, according to paragraph 66 of
the imperial law concerning protection against and suppression of
cattle diseases, be punished with a fine up to 150 marks or arrest,
in so far as no greater penalty is prescribed by law. In addition to
this punishment the cattle or fresh meat imported in contravention
of this prohibition will be confiscated, whether the cattle or meat
belong to the offender or not.
Given at the session of the Senate, Hamburg, October 26, 1894.
[Page 232]
[Inclosure 2 in No.
146.]
Mr. Runyon to
Baron Marschall.
Embassy of the United States of America,
Berlin, October 28, 1894.
The undersigned, ambassador, etc., of the United States of America,
begs leave to refer to the conversation had with His Excellency
Baron Marschall von Bieberstein, imperial secretary of state for
foreign affairs, to-day, in which the undersigned, under positive
instructions from his Government, earnestly urged that the
contemplated prohibition against American beef cattle and American
fresh beef be not enforced. In that interview the subject was indeed
fully discussed and the views of the Government of the United States
as to the proposed measure were presented at length. The
undersigned, nevertheless, in calling his excellency’s attention
again to the fact that the shipping of cattle affected with Texas
fever from the United States can be wholly prevented, begs leave
very respectfully to avail himself of the occasion to renew his
representations of the great injury which will be caused to American
commerce in that direction by the enforcement of the measure
complained of.
The measure was not only sudden and unexpected (it appears to have
been promulgated only on the day before yesterday), but is harsh and
unnecessary, going, as the undersigned respectfully submits, very
far beyond the requirements of any reasonable sanitary
consideration. It excludes not only all American beef cattle
whatever, without exception, qualification or discrimination, or
reference to condition, but even all American fresh beef whatever,
merely on the ground that it is said that in two recent shipments of
American live cattle Texas fever was found to exist. The main object
of this communication is very respectfully to call his excellency’s
attention to the representation made by the undersigned in the
interview above spoken of, under the instructions before referred
to, that the only cattle that can communicate the disease known as
Texas fever are those from a well-defined district in the southerly
part of the United States and that the American regulations and
inspections are amply sufficient to prevent the exportation of
cattle from that district.
The undersigned, begging leave to repeat his request that the measure
referred to be not enforced, avails himself of the occasion to renew
to his excellency the assurance of his most distinguished
consideration.
