File No. 7661/15.
Minister Beaupré to the Secretary of State .
Buenos Aires , July 31, 1907 .
Sir: Referring to my telegram of this date, elsewhere confirmed, and to my No. 567, of the 20th instant, concerning Underwood’s deviled ham rejected by the Argentine authorities as containing boric acid, I have the honor to report that, in view of other shipments being rejected, I called on the minister for foreign affairs to-day and endeavored to have the time for reshipment extended. At first the minister was not disposed to recommend an extension of the time. He said that ample notice had been given that ham containing boric acid would not be received; that a large quantity of goods from England, Italy, and Spain had either been reshipped or destroyed, and he did not think that any exception should be made; that the question was not a diplomatic one, but one of fact; and that a competent officer of the Argentine Government had determined the fact that the Underwood’s deviled ham rejected contained boric acid, and that this could not be set aside by an analysis made by any other Government. I urged that the limited time given for reshipment did not even permit the local representatives of Wm. Underwood Company to be heard by the proper authorities, and they might have some evidence to produce which would have an important bearing on the subject. The minister finally sent for the assistant secretary of agriculture, who has consented to give one month’s time for reshipment, but would concede no more.
I am, etc.,