Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Berlin , December 22, 1898 .
Sir: Referring to my dispatch No. 626, of the 26th ultimo,1I have the honor to inform you that in conversation at the foreign office yesterday I was told by Baron von Richthofen, the under secretary of [Page 486] state for foreign affairs, that the draft of the meat-inspection bill had now been completed; that it would be considered by the Prussian ministry of state within a few days, and that it would then be put before the imperial federal council (Bundesrath). It is probable, therefore, that it will be introduced in the Reichstag at the present session, as indicated in the speech from the throne.
Last night’s North German Gazette refers to the same subject, and contains the following semiofficial notice:
The draft of a meat-inspection law has progressed so far that it can soon be submitted to the Bundesrath. The purpose of this long-anticipated law is, as is well known, the introduction of a general obligatory meat inspection for the German Empire. It deals therefore with a matter which is purely German, and which imposes upon us a task in the accomplishment of which we alone are concerned.
In commenting upon this notice this morning’s papers remark that it is evidently “directed to an American address.”
I took advantage of the conversation mentioned to refer to the facility, as shown by Dr. Stiles’s investigations, with which uninspected American pork products could be imported into Germany, stating that so long as this was possible American efforts to send only microscopically inspected meats to Germany were rendered futile. I called attention to the fact that the numbers on the boxes and the numbers on the inspection certificates should correspond, and urged that the customs officials should have their attention specially drawn to this matter. (In this connection I take the liberty of suggesting that the possibilities of substitution would be materially decreased if it were printed in German upon the certificates that they were only valid for the boxes whose stamp numbers corresponded with the numbers on the certificate.) I further called attention to the fact that American meat can readily be recognized as such by its quality and cut, and that meat offered for inspection in Germany was so recognized, and when trichinae were found in it the case was mentioned in the list sent to the embassy every six months, although the circumstances of the case might clearly show that the meat had probably never been inspected for trichinae in America, but had been substitued for inspected meat and had been improperly imported into Germany. Baron Richthofen seemed interested in the matter, to which his personal attention had never before been called, and promised to look into it. He said, in closing, that he hoped that everything would be arranged in a spirit of “peace and friendliness.”
I have, etc.,
P. S.—December 23, 1898. I have since learned that the notice in the North German Gazette, to which I have referred, and which has generally been considered as semiofficial, was published without the approval of the chiefs of the imperial home and foreign offices.
- Not printed.↩