Mr. White to Mr. Day.
Berlin, June 18, 1898.
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 377, of April 8 last, I have the honor to inform you that a note has to-day been received from the German foreign office, in which it is stated that new instructions have been issued by the Prussian minister of finance, dated the 8th instant, in regard to the customs treatment of American fruit waste and dried fruit, according to which all shipments of dried fruit cut from whole fruit (that is fruit which has not been peeled) are to be inspected in the same manner prescribed in the circular instruction of March 16, in the case of apple skins and cores.
The reason for this action is stated in the note to be as follows:
Recently several shipments of dried unpeeled whole fruit have arrived at the custom-house at Kaldenkirchen, accompanied by papers and marks on the boxes showing that the same had been dried upon wooden boards in the sun, and investigation by the appropriate experts showed that this fruit had in reality been subjected to a mere superficial drying in the sun in the air. As claimed by the foreign office in a previous note, such superficial drying is not calculated to kill any animal [Page 335] life which may exist upon the fruit in question, consequently the danger exists that the San Jose scale may be introduced by such fruit as well as by the so called “fruit waste,” and under these circumstances it is thought to be necessary that such fruit, unless absolutely dry and brittle, should be treated as fresh fruit in the sense of the order of the Bundesrath of February 5 last, and to be subjected to the prescribed examination.
In this connection, I have the honor to inform you that no reply has as yet been received from the foreign office to the question contained in my note of May 9 (see my dispatch No. 419 of that date) in regard to the nature of the scale claimed to have been found upon American fruit at Kaldenkirchen.
I am, etc.,