File No. 5727/131.

The Acting Secretary of State to the Chargé of Austria-Hungary.

No. 277.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your note of the 8th instant, relative to certificates of value issued by Austrian chambers of commerce and industry. Referring to recent correspondence, you call attention to the fact that the instructions of the Treasury Department, extending the provisions of Point F in the commercial agreement between the United States and the German Empire to Austrian chambers of commerce and industry, were addressed merely to the appraising officer at New York, as appears in Treasury Decisions No. 28400, and you request that those instructions be made general.

[Page 491]

In reply, I have the honor to inform you that the department is advised by the Treasury Department that the publication in Treasury Decisions of an instruction to the collector at New York makes that instruction applicable to all other collectors of customs in the United States, it being the practice of the Treasury to issue instructions either by circular addressed to all customs officers, or by the publication in Treasury Decisions of an instruction issued to a particular customs officer. The Treasury Department assures this department that the certificates of value issued by the Austrian chambers of commerce and industry will be accorded equally favorable treatment in all the ports of entry of the United States.

Accept, etc.,

Alvey A. Adee.