Mr. Hay to Mr. Townsend .
Washington , March 8, 1900 .
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 38 of January 27, transmitting a translation of a note from the Belgian minister for foreign affairs requesting the United States to use its good offices to the end that the Government of Liberia, having adhered to the general act of July 2, 1890, should signify likewise its adhesion to the convention of June 8, 1899.
I inclose for your information a copy of an instruction1 which I have this day addressed to the minister of the United States at Monrovia on the subject.
It is noticed that the minister states in his note that “the Belgian Government, having charge of collecting the adhesion of the governments referred to, has already received most of those expected, notably the adhesion of the United States of America.”
This is not altogether in accordance with fact. In my note of July 22 last to the Belgian minister at Washington, I said:
The discussion during the conferences of 1889–90, which resulted in the conclusion of the general act of July 2, 1890, developed the earnest sentiment of the Government of the United States in favor of the utmost possible restriction of the deleterious traffic in spirituous liquors with the tribes of Central Africa, and the results then reached, by which an import duty of 15 francs per hectoliter of proof spirits testing 50 per cent of alcohol was imposed, fell short of the just expectations of this Government, because apparently inadequate to check the trade. The present convention, whereby the import duty is raised to 70 francs per hectoliter (about 61½ cents per imperial gallon, or 52 cents per United States gallon), while still believed scarcely adequate to attain the humanitarian object of virtual prohibition for which this Government has contended, is so far in the direction desired as to merit the cordial acquiescence of the United States Government. The convention will be laid before the Senate of the United States at the next session, with the President’s recommendations that that high body advise and consent to the adhesion of the United States thereto.
In fulfillment of that promise, the President on December 11, 1899, transmitted the convention to the Senate to receive its advice and consent to the adhesion of the United States thereto. Such advice and consent has not yet been given by the Senate, and until that be accomplished the United States can not become an adhering party. You will set the Belgian Government right in this respect.
I am, etc.,
- Printed under Liberia.↩