Mr. White to Mr. Sherman.
Berlin, December 24, 1897. (Received January 15.)
Sir: Referring to my dispatches Nos. 187 and 211, of November 12 and December 4 last, respectively, I have the honor to inform you that the German Reichstag, on the 17th instant, adjourned over the holidays until the 11th of January next, on which date the Prussian Diet will assemble for its winter session.
As anticipated, the Government bills for increasing the navy and for the reform in military judicial procedure, and the appropriation bills were read once and referred to committees. Of action in regard to the army and navy, I presume the military and naval attaches of this embassy will keep our Departments fully informed.
As submitted by the Government, the estimated receipts and expenses for the fiscal year 1898–99 balance at 1,437,179,979 marks, as against 1,328,301,824 marks for 1897–98, and among the proposed new expenses are an increase of 18,000 marks in the amount (now 46,000 marks) allowed the chancellor of the Empire for entertaining, etc., and additional 300,000 marks on account of participation in the exposition to be held in Paris in 1900, 25,000 marks for continuing investigation as to the “foot and mouth” disease in cattle, and 300,000 marks for a deep-sea expedition which is to start from some German port in August next, and to investigate the bottom of the sea to the depth of 1,000 meters between Scotland and the Shetland Islands and then in the neighborhood of the Canaries and Cape Verde. An increase is also recommended in the personnel of the foreign office and of several missions and consulates, and it is proposed to send a professional vice-consul (in [Page 247] addition to the consul already there) to Buenos Ayres, and to send out more professional officials than has been the case heretofore where new consular offices are to be established, to send a naval attaché for Eastern Asia, to reside in Tokyo or Yokohama, and to send special agents to South Brazil, in addition to the commissioners provided for in the emigration act (dispatch of June 10, 1897), to inspect such land as may be opened for settlement by German emigrants.
During the debate, which lasted for more than four days, duels in the army, the treatment of the Poles in Prussia, the recent uproar in the Austrian Parliament, the durability of the Triple Alliance and Italy’s ability to perform her obligations under it, Haiti and China, bimetallism, and sugar, were among the subjects referred to, and the new American tariff came in for a good deal of abuse. Representatives of the Government stated that the tariff negotiations between Germany and the United States and England did not permit information in regard to them to be communicated to the Parliament at present, and they explained the nature of the work intended to be done by the “Zollbeirath” (dispatch No. 180, November 8, 1897), calling attention to the fact that all parties interested in tariff changes should take advantage of an early opportunity to be heard before this committee, or the appropriate subcommittee under it, in their own interest. The Radicals, as usual, charged the Agrarian members with raising the prices of the people’s food in their own selfish interests, and they received the customary answer that the ever-wider extending prohibitions in regard to the importation of pork and other farm products were necessary on sanitary grounds. Baron Thielmann stated that the sugar-tax law of last year had not produced the desired results, and that the negotiations which had previously been of no effect (see dispatch No. 311, of July 24, 1895, and note on “sugar bounties” in dispatch No. 469, of February 8, 1896), looking to the abolishing of export premiums upon sugar by all of the countries now paying such premiums, would probably soon be resumed, with more prospect of success, in view of the conditions prevailing at present.
Among the measures introduced by private members were the annual bill in regard to the return of the Jesuits, amendments to the law of April 20, 1892, in regard to trade in wine, etc., amendments to the customs tariff law of July 15, 1879, a bill looking to the introduction of representative governments in all of the federal states (Mecklenburg has as yet no parliament or legislature), a draft of a homestead law, a bill for a tax on saccharine and other sweet stuffs, and an interpellation in regard to trade in petroleum.
Of these the last was the only measure which came up for discussion. Its text was: “What means do the Federated Governments think of taking in order to counteract the efforts of the Standard Oil Company to monopolize the trade in petroleum in Germany?” and it was supported by members of the National Liberal and Conservative parties. In the arguments in favor of the Government taking action, attention was called to the fact that certain firms at Mannheim and elsewhere in Germany, which had heretofore been considered as rivals of the Standard Oil Company, had recently made terms with it, and the fear was expressed that that company would now soon increase the price of petroleum. It was urged that the Government should make all possible concessions in favor of Russian petroleum, and the Agrarians, not unselfishly, advised the Government to take vigorous action against the United States, to shut out American petroleum and to thereby do something for agriculture by promoting the use of illuminating [Page 248] spirits. Count Possadowsky, the Imperial secretary of the interior, said that he was obliged to admit that the price of petroleum had gone down since the formation of the “Deutsche Americanische Petroleum Gesellschaft” (Standard Oil Company) in Bremen, but he was afraid that this had been the case in order that competitors might be driven from the field, and that the price would at once go up if competitors were removed. Consequently the Government had (since 1895) done all it could to favor “outsiders,” the importation of Russian petroleum had been favored by allowing it to pay duty according to volume instead of according to weight, and the Government would continue to do all in its power to increase the consumption of Russian petroleum, and to favor the “Pure Oil Company “in America. Count Possadowsky further said that since the 5th of October last, a special railway freight tariff (compare the embassy’s correspondence upon the subject of American woods on German railways) had been in force giving low rates of transportation for refined Russian petroleum shipped from Alexan-drowo to German stations, and that still lower rates would soon be made, and that an arrangement would soon be perfected by which a mixture of American and Russian petroleum could be imported, upon which the duty would be paid according to volume, and he added that he did not believe that the American and Caucasian petroleum producers had been able to make an arrangement in regard to a division of territory to be supplied, although it was frequently reported that they had.
I have, etc.,