File No. 5869/41.
Ambassador White to the Secretary of State.
Paris, July 17, 1907.
(Mr. White states that the minister of agriculture called upon him, to say that he had given orders that the American salted meats be admitted to France without microscopic examination and added that this measure was provisional. States further that he ascertained no limit of the time fixed, its duration being evidently contingent on the success of negotiations foreshadowed in the department’s dispatch, No. 54, concerning which he has had two interviews with the minister for foreign affairs, who has left for his holiday till the end of August. The minister of agriculture requested that Porto Rico decree be further postponed and thought it would be, but no positive assurance yet received. Mr. White informs Mr. Root that he is following matters [Page 409] closely in the departments concerned, and that foreign office asked him yesterday whether he would inform this Government officially that the certificates of French chambers of commerce are now accepted at our custom-houses on equal terms with those issued by German chambers of commerce. Asks to be cabled as soon as possible whether he may do so. Thinks it will facilitate matters.)