Mr. Ewing to Mr.
Olney.
Legation of the United States,
Brussels, December 19,
1895. (Received Jan. 4, 1896.)
No. 165.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your cablegram of the 18th instant.
The ministerial order by which the importation of cattle from the
Netherlands into Belgium is permitted went into effect on the 5th day of
this month. I inclose herewith a copy of this order, together with a
translation, from which it will be seen that the conditions therein
imposed almost render the privilege nugatory. I inclose also herewith a
copy of a communication which I have just addressed to the minister for
foreign affairs, and of a cablegram just sent you.
I am compelled to express to you the opinion that the present policy of
the Belgian Government is to prevent the importation of foreign cattle
into Belgium, in the interests of the cattle breeders of this country.*
* *
If the order of exclusion should be withdrawn, I am confident such
conditions would be imposed on the shippers of American cattle as would
render the privilege substantially worthless.
[Page 36]
The methods adopted on this subject by the Agricultural Department are by
no means approved by the people of Belgium, or indeed by a large number
of the members of the Parliament.
The butchers, the meat vendors, the great body of meat consumers oppose
them, and in various ways, by public meetings and petitions to
Parliament, have protested against them.
In my judgment, there will be no immediate change in this policy.
* * * * * * *
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No.
165.—Translation.]
Ministry of Agriculture and Public Works.
Direction of agriculture.—Sanitary regulations
concerning domestic animals.—Importation and transit of cattle sent
from the Netherlands.
The minister of agriculture and public works, considering the law of
December 30, 1882, on the sanitary regulations concerning domestic
animals, also the regulations of general administration of September
20, 1883, and October 30, 1895, adopted in execution of this law;
reconsidering the ministerial orders regulating the importation and
transit of cattle from the Netherlands, and notably the orders dated
September 25, 1894, April 18 and November 15, 1895; considering the
opinion of the minister of finance, orders:
Article 1. By modification of the
ministerial order dated April 18, 1895, is authorized, until further
notice, on the conditions hereafter determined, the importation by
railway of bovine animals sent from the Netherlands to the
destination of slaughterhouses of Brussels, Cureghem-Anderlecht,
Antwerp, Ghent, Liege, and Bruges.
The importation will take place through the offices and suboffices of
the customhouse designated in the table hereto annexed on the days
and hours therein indicated.
The animals, after having submitted at said offices or suboffices to
sanitary control, will be sent on toward one of the stations of
Brussels (Midi), Brussels (Ouest), Cureghem-Anderlecht, Antwerp,
Ghent, Liege, and Bruges, and conducted from there, under the
surveillance of the local police, toward the slaughterhouses above
designated in order to be there slaughtered at the latest within
three days.
Article 2. The ministerial order referred
to above of April 18, 1895, is withdrawn in that which concerns
animals of the bovine species. However, the importation and the
transit of these animals will not take place except through the
offices and suboffices of the custom-house designated in the table
hereto annexed, on the days and hours designated therein.
On their arrival at the said offices or suboffices the animals will
be examined at the expense of the importers by the veterinary in
control.
When the veterinary admits that the animals are in good health, he
states it in a certificate in conformity to the form hereto annexed,
which is delivered to the owner or the conductor in charge of the
animals.
The direct transit, without unloading, by the railway of the animals
of the bovine species is authorized through all the offices open to
that effect and is subjected to no special formality of a sanitary
character.
Article 3. The importation and transit of
hogs coming from the Netherlands remain prohibited. However, the
direct transit, without unloading, by railway of said animals is
authorized without any special formality of a sanitary
character.
Article 4. The orders of September 20,
1886, August 25, 1894, and of November 15, 1895, are withdrawn.
Article 5. The present order will go into
force December 5, 1895.
Brussels, November 28,
1895.
Leon De Bruyn
.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
165.]
Mr. Ewing to
Mr. De Burlet.
Legation of the United States,
Brussels, December 19, 1895.
Mr. Minister: On the 22d day of August last
I had the honor to address to your excellency a communication on the
exclusion of American
[Page 37]
cattle
from Belgium, in which I referred to my communication of October 3,
1894, and to the reply thereto, on January 8, 1895.
I beg, at this time, to call the attention of your excellency to my
letter of August 22, 1895 (to which I received no reply), and to all
the correspondence on the subject of the importation of American
cattle into Belgium. In this connection, I refer to the ministerial
order issued by the minister of agriculture and public works on the
26th day of November, 1895, permitting the importation of cattle
from the Netherlands into Belgium.
I am in receipt of cabled instructions from my Government to strongly
urge the similar withdrawal of the prohibition of importation of
cattle from the United States.
I have therefore in the communications, to which I have above
referred, called the attention of the Belgian Government to the
rigid inspection to which all cattle are subjected in the United
States, from the breeding ground to the moment of shipment, and to
the successful eradication of pleuro-pneumonia and other contagious
diseases, and I have furnished your department with information upon
that subject.
In view of the great care and expense of the systematic and complete
inspection of cattle for export provided by my Government, and in
view of the very slight evidence of contagious disease claimed to
have been discovered by the sanitary officials of Belgium, I
respectfully, in behalf of the United States, remonstrate against
the exclusion of American cattle from the Belgian ports.
In view of the ministerial order of the 26th day of November, 1895,
permitting the importation of cattle from the Netherlands, my
Government can but feel that the further continuance in force of the
ministerial order of the 29th day of December, 1894, would be an
unjust discrimination against the importation of American
products.
I pray your excellency to accept, etc.,
