During the month of August I expect to be at St. Moritz, Switzerland,
only a few miles from the Italian frontier, and to keep in daily
communication with the embassy.
[Inclosure in No. 22.]
Mr. Draper to
the minister for foreign
affairs.
Embassy of the United States,
Rome, July 15, 1897.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to state
that I am instructed by my Government to address you upon a subject
concerning which there has been some correspondence previous to my
arrival in Rome.
I am informed that on January 26 last a decree was issued by the
royal ministry of agriculture, industry, and commerce providing for
the regulation of the importation into Italy by sea of cattle,
meats, etc.
In the third section of the decree it appears that meats from the
United States must not only be accompanied by a sanitary certificate
of origin issued by the competent local authorities, but the
certificate must be viséed by the Royal consul or consular officer
having jurisdiction in the place from which the meat is shipped.
On the other hand, for meats from the European countries named in
this section, the certificates issued by the local authorities are
made valid without the necessity of the consular visé.
On April 1 last Mr. Larz Anderson, chargé d’affaires, addressed to
your excellency a note on the subject of this discrimination in
accordance with instructions received by him from the State
Department at Washington.
I find an acknowledgment of this note on the files of the embassy
[Page 364]
under date of April 7
last, but no further reply. If one was sent I would be greatly
obliged for a copy.
Mr. Anderson’s departure and the illness of his successor, Mr. Hale,
during the month before my arrival may have interfered with the
continuity of the negotiation, especially since I have only just
been informed that the question was pending.
I now hear from my Government that the attention of the embassy of
His Majesty the King of Italy at Washington was called to this
discrimination some months since, and that under date of May 26,
1897, His Excellency Baron Fava notified the Department of State
that the question would be submitted for examination to the
zootechnic epizootic board at one of its next sessions.
This note is said, moreover, to make the following statements:
His Majesty’s Government, however, desires to perform a
friendly act toward that of the United States by frankly
forewarning it that it could in no case be induced to modify
the provisions contained in the aforesaid decree in
accordance with the desire expressed by the Federal Treasury
Department (Department of Agriculture) if the United States
should persist in retaining in the new customs tariff the
exorbitant duties to which I have had the honor to call your
excellency’s attention in my preceding written and verbal
communications. The same warning has been communicated with
the same amicable intent by my Government to the
representative of the United States at Rome, who has
presented a complaint similar to that which, after receiving
your excellency’s note of March 15, I transmitted to the
royal ministry of foreign affairs.
As before stated, there is no record at the embassy of the reception
of “the warning with amicable intent” to which His Excellency Baron
Fava refers, and as I am instructed by my Government to make further
representations to your excellency on the subject, I would be glad
of a reply covering Mr. Anderson’s note and this one.
I also venture to express the hope that the views stated in the
letter of Baron Fava, above quoted, are not the present views of His
Majesty’s Government.
I avail myself, etc.,
