The Portuguese Minister to the Acting Secretary of State.
Washington , June 28, 1910 .
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of His Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, has the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the note of this date by which his excellency the Acting Secretary of State of the United States of America is good enough to inform him that—
His attention having been called, on the occasion of the exchange of notes respecting the reciprocal concession of the most favored nation treatment to the citizens, merchandise, and ships of the two countries, to the final protocol annexed to the treaty of commerce recently concluded between Portugal and Germany whereby the names of “Porto” and “Madeira” are recognized as being strictly designations of origin, and whereby it is agreed to prevent the sale in the German Empire under these names of wines not originally from the Portuguese districts of Douro and the island of Madeira, he hastens, in relation to this subject, to declare that the Government of the United States of America will fully exercise the powers vested in it by law in order to protect in the United States of America the names “Porto” and “Madeira” and that, with this end in view, it will apply strictly laws and rulings forbidding the labeling or branding of wine so as to deceive or mislead the purchaser concerning the nature or origin of the product; and that it is also understood that, should the Congress of the United States act on the recommendation of the President in regard to ship subsidies, the Government of the United States of America will favor the establishment of a subsidized line of steamships plying directly between the United States and Portugal.
The undersigned having taken due note, in the name of his Government, of these declarations of the honorable the Acting Secretary of [Page 831] State of the United States of America, avails himself of this opportunity in order to convey to his excellency the renewed assurances of his highest consideration.