Mr. White to Mr.
Day.
Embassy
of the United States,
Berlin, September 7,
1898.
No. 539.]
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence, and
in particular to my dispatch No. 487 of July 8, 1898, I have the honor
to transmit herewith a copy, with translation, of a note dated the 18th
ultimo, from the director of the Imperial health office (which has
to-day been received from the Imperial foreign office) in regard to the
nature of the living scale which was found some time ago in a certain
shipment of American fruit waste at Kaldenkirchen. Before any further
action is taken in this matter the return of Dr. Stiles, who is
temporarily absent from the city, will be awaited, in order that it may
be ascertained whether or not the scale claimed to have been found is
one which was probably upon the fruit originally or whether it might not
have come from the wood of the box in which it was packed.
In this connection, in compliance with your instruction No. 505 of July 5
last, I have the honor to inclose a copy of the foreign office’s note of
June 16, the translation of the material parts of which was embodied in
my dispatch No. 458 of June 18, 1898.
I am, etc.,
[Page 337]
[Inclosure in No.
539.—Translation.]
The
Imperial Health Department,
Berlin, August 18,
1898.
As a completion of the reports of April 11 and June 9 last, I beg to
state that the live scale which has been reported as having been
found belonged to the subdivision of the Mytilaspis species. The
species were not more definitely determined at the time, as this
seemed of no importance in connection with the fact that there was a
possibility that live scale might, under certain circumstances, be
imported in dried American apple waste. As the few scales at hand
had to be destroyed for the purpose of examination, the exact
determination of the species was no longer possible.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
539.—Translation.]
Foreign Office, Berlin, June 16,
1898.
The undersigned has the honor, referring to the courteous note of
April 8 of this year, to inform His Excellency Mr. Andrew D. White,
ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the United States of
America, that the Royal Prussian minister of finance, with the
approval of the chancellor of the Empire (Imperial department of the
interior), has addressed to the provincial tax directors of the
border provinces the inclosed printed notice of the 8th instant, in
accordance with which the measures ordered in that minister’s decree
of March 16 of this year, with regard to American fruit waste, are
to be applied to all the unpeeled dried fruit imported into Germany
from the United States of America.
With regard to the reasons which have led to these measures, and
which are briefly stated in the inclosure itself, the undersigned
takes the liberty to make the following remarks as a supplement to
the same.
Packages of American fruit have recently been repeatedly received at
the Royal Prussian main custom-house at Kaldenkirchen, which
packages consisted of fruit dried whole and with the skin on them,
and which, according to the directions for use accompanying the
shipments and according to the labels attached to the boxes in
question, contained fruit which had merely been dried on wooden
boards in the sun. In corroboration of this fact the experts who
have been consulted have affirmed, after an examination of samples
of the fruit, that it had in fact been subjected only to a
superficial desiccation in the sun and open air.
As was explained at length in this Department’s note of April 8 of
this year, such a superficial method of desiccation is not one that
is fitted to secure the destruction of the animal germs which the
said fruit might contain. In fact, the importation of such fruit
involves the danger of the introduction of the San Jose shield
louse, as much as in the case of the admission of fruit waste.
Under these circumstances it appeared necessary to give instructions
that uncut and unpeeled fruit should, unless it is shown to have
been thoroughly dried before its importation, be treated as “fresh
fruit” within the meaning of the Imperial ordinance of February 5 of
this year, and be subjected to the inspection required by section 1,
paragraph 2, of that ordinance.
The undersigned avails himself, etc.
[Page 338]
[Subinclosure.—Translation.]
To the Provincial Customs Collectors at Cologne,
Münster, Hanover, Altona, Dantzig, Königsberg, and Breslau:
The ordinance of March 16, 1898, III, 3841, provides that fruit waste
coming from the United States of America, especially such as
consists of apple parings and the extracted cores of apples, shall
only be allowed to be imported without previous inspection for the
purpose of ascertaining whether it contains the San Jose shield
louse, when it is without exception thoroughly dried, hard and
brittle, so that it can be rubbed to pieces in the hand without
difficulty; if in even a single package of any shipment an article
is found that does not possess those qualities altogether or in
part, the whole shipment must be objected to and inspected.
It has been found that whole (uncut), that is to say, unpeeled, dried
fruit, coming from the United States, is likewise imported in the
same, not quite fresh, but yet not thoroughly dried condition as the
fruit waste, owing to its having undergone a merely superficial
drying in the open air and the sun, not sufficient to secure the
destruction of the insects which it may contain. Hence, in the
opinion of experts, whole (uncut) fruit which has thus been dried in
the sun or open air, or in a low temperature generally, can spread
the San Jose shield louse as effectually as the fruit waste which
has been treated in the same way.
I, therefore, with the approval of the chancellor of the Empire,
direct that the measures prescribed in the ordinance of March 16,
1898, shall likewise be applied to whole, that is to say, unpeeled,
dried fruit.
The points of entrance on the frontier are to be furnished with these
instructions as soon as possible.
