Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1900

Mr. Hay to Mr. Choate.

Department of State,
Washington, February 19, 1900.

No. 308.]

Sir: Referring to previous correspondence relative to the seizure of American flour and other merchandise off the east coast of Africa by British men-of-war, and with reference particularly to the Department’s No. 286, of the 26th ultimo, specially relating to the claim of the Pennsylvania Milling and Export Company, I inclose, for your further information, copy of a letter from the president of that company commenting upon their shipments and stating that they sent nothing directly or indirectly to the Transvaal.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.

[Inclosure.]

Pennsylvania Milling and Export Company to Mr. Hay.

New York, February 12, 1900.

Sir: Referring to alleged discoveries by the British authorities of flour said to belong to the Transvaal Government, at the bottom of the cargo of the steamship Beatrice, I beg to state that if such flour was found it did not emanate from us. We had no shipments of flour on the Beatrice, except such as was described in the affidavits we filed with your Department, and as stated therein, this flour was sold to regular merchants, and as far as we know was not intended for the use of the Transvaal Government, with whom we have never had any dealings either direct or indirect. The marks on the flour indicate the initials of the buyers and the brands on the flour are ones that the writer established himself when in the Transvaal three years ago and which are well known commercially, being distributed by our buyers to the ordinary users of flour, such as bakers, storekeepers, etc. It is notorious in the African trade here, however, that an English firm, Messrs. Collier & Sons, of Bristol, who are represented in the Transvaal by the firm of Arthur May & Co., of which firm Mr. Collier is the resident African partner, have been the shippers of some of the flour that was on the same steamers that carried ours, and it is rumored that they had made large sales to the Transvaal Government. It is, therefore, possible that their shipments may be confounded with ours to our detriment.

We are only awaiting the arrival of our original documents through the mails to establish our complete title to the shipments seized, but as they are very uncertain at present, all we can do is to ask you to establish our innocence of wrong intent, with the data we furnished you with for that purpose, and we expect that by the time the question of indemnification has been satisfactorily settled, we will be in position to establish our right to the proceeds of the flour by the presentation of the original documents, of which you have copies.

Pennsylvania Milling and Export Company.