Department of State,
Washington, December 21,
1900.
No. 30.]
[Inclosure.]
J. C. Ayer Company to
Mr. Hill.
Lowell, Mass., December 17, 1900.
Sir: We had the honor of addressing you on
the 15th instant in the matter of our preparations in Portugal, and
to-day are in receipt of your esteemed favor of the 14th, covering
copy of a note addressed to the United States legation at Lisbon by
the Portuguese foreign office stating that permission has been
denied for the sale of Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral, Ayer’s Sarsaparilla,
and Ayer’s Ague Cure. In this note is not stated the ground on which
the permission has been denied, but our resident agents at Oporto
inform us that the decision has been made on the ground that the
preparations in question are “secret” medicines. As stated in our
respects to you of the 15th instant, this is not true.
In any event the decision is a most arbitrary one and has no just
basis, the motive therefor being, in fact, the desire of the
Portuguese native manufacturers to prevent the importation and
competition of American medicines.
The exclusion of our Ague Cure is of small moment, as we have made no
particular demand in Portugal for that medicine, but we beg that you
will be kind enough to exert your influence in favor of a reversal
of the decision of the Portuguese ministers in so far as the same
affects Ayer’s Cherry Pectoral and Ayer’s Sarsaparilla.
Again expressing our thanks for your good attention, and hoping for
your further assistance in the way indicated herein and in our
letter of the 15th instant,
We have, etc.,
J. C. Ayer Company.
