Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1895, Part I

Mr. Eustis to Mr. Olney.

Embassy of the United States,
Paris, September 24, 1895. (Received Oct. 7.)

No. 379.]

Sir: Upon receiving dispatch No. 512 from the Department, instructing me to bring again to the attention of the French Government the subject of the prohibition of the importation of our cattle, and to ask that, in view of the present good sanitary condition of our live stock of all kinds, the question of revoking this measure be taken into consideration, I communicated at once with Mr. Hanotaux.

Quoting the statement made by the Secretary of Agriculture in the letter accompanying your dispatch, I represented that the present healthful condition of our cattle was well established; that the existence of pleuro-pneumonia among the animals shipped abroad was unfounded and based upon errors of diagnosis, as there had been no cases of this disease in the United States for several years; that our cattle were also equally free from Texas fever, and that even if cattle affected by that fever had been found among our exportations, we should have the right to protest against the prohibition of the trade on that account, as the disease is not disseminated by affected cattle. I added that, in view of these facts, my Government entertained the hope that it may be found practicable to revoke the decree prohibiting the importation of American cattle into France.

Under date of the 23d instant, Mr. Hanotaux replies that he hastened to transmit my communication to the minister of commerce, recommending it to his attention in the most particular manner, but adds that, in view of the information published in the American papers with reference to the existence of epizootic diseases in several States of the Union, he would have liked the statement of our Secretary of Agriculture to have been accompanied by statistic data, furnished by the veterinary inspectors, showing the number of cases of epizooty recorded in the United States during the months of June and July.

I inclose herewith copy and translation of this reply.

I have, etc.,

J. B. Eustis

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[Inclosure in No. 379.—Translation.]

Mr. Hanotaux to Mr. Eustis.

Paris, September 23, 1895.

Mr. Ambassador: By a communication dated the 11th of this month you were kind enough to make known to me the importance your Government would attach to the removal of the prohibition, which was decreed on the 24th of last February as a sanitary measure, against the introduction in France of animals of the bovine species native to the United States.

Your excellency adds that in support of this demand you had received a letter from the Secretary of Agriculture, setting forth the satisfactory condition of the actual sanitary state of American cattle. I have the honor to inform you that I hastened to transmit your communication to my colleague, Mr. Garland, recommending to his attention in a special manner the demand which you did me the honor to address to me in the name of your Government.

It will nevertheless not escape you, Mr. Ambassador, that in the face of information spread by the American press itself regarding epizooty supposed to exist in divers States of the Union, it would have been of great help to me to have been able, at the same time, to point out to my colleague that the information sent you by the Federal Secretary of Agriculture, relating to the sanitary condition of animals of the bovine species in the United States, was accompanied by statistical reports emanating from the official veterinary inspection service in those States of the Union where cattle raising and trading is practiced, and containing the number of cases of epizooty existing in the different States during the months of June and July.

Please accept, etc.,

G. Hanotaux

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