[Inclosure in No. 264.]
Mr. Foster to Mr.
Elduayen.
Legation of the United States,
Madrid, September 11,
1884.
Excellency: By reference to the files of the
ministry of state your excellency will note that for several years past
the Government of the United States has been earnestly remonstrating
against the system of the Spanish Government of levying and collecting
in the ports of the United States an export tax or duty, styled consular
tonnage dues, and which has been the source of much complaint on the
part of American shippers. One form of that tax was the collection of 40
cents per head upon cattle shipped to Cuba, and as this had come to be a
considerable export trade from the States in the Gulf of Mexico the tax
proved onerous and led to vigorous protests. About two years ago these
protests were formulated in a note of this legation, dated September 26,
1882, in which the claim of Mr. D. James McKay was presented to His
Catholic Majesty’s Government for the return of several thousand dollars
of these unwarranted taxes. The reply of your excellency’s Government
was that no law or regulation had existed since 1876 which authorized
Spanish consuls to collect the particular tax complained of, and that
instructions would be sent to those officials to desist from its
collection in future; but no answer was made to the demand for the
return of the taxes acknowledged to have been illegally exacted.
It therefore became my duty on the 16th of July, 1883, under specific
instructions of my Government, to direct the attention of the then
minister of state to this omission, and to repeat the request for the
return of the confessedly illegal taxes exacted by the Spanish consuls.
As three months passed by without any reference to my note, I was
instructed to again repeat the demand for payment, and to urge a prompt
return of the money. This last note was followed up by personal
reference to the subject on my part to your excellency’s predecessor,
and finally, under date of January 12 last, a note was received from
him, in which I was informed that instructions would be sent to the
consul at Key West (where the greater amount of the taxes had been
collected) to make a liquidation of the sums which had been wrongfully
received in order to return the same to the interested parties.
This tardy but gratifying resolution was communicated, through the
Department of State at, Washington to the claimants, who sought for the
repayment of their money from the Spanish consul at Key West; but that
official persists in disobeying the orders of the Government at Madrid,
if they have been sent to him, as he neglects to make the promised
repayment. Despairing of a settlement through the consulate where the
wrongful and illegal taxes were exacted, the claimants have presented
their itemized accounts in due form to the Department of State at
Washington, and these have been forwarded to me by my Government. And,
in obedience to its instructions, I have to again present a demand for
the return of the taxes which the Spanish Government has acknowledged to
have been collected without warrant of law or regulation, to ask that
the payment be made to this legation, and to express the hope cherished
by my Government that no further delay will occur in repairing the wrong
inflicted on American shippers. Your excellency will, I am sure,
recognize that my Government has just cause of complaint at the past
delays, when you remember how vigorously it has resisted the pretensions
of the Spanish Government to collect an export duty in American ports,
and when this portion of the duty at least has been
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acknowledged by the latter to be
unwarranted and illegal, and I am convinced that you will allow no
further impediments to be interposed to its prompt return.
I beg to add that I will cheerfully hold myself ready to meet any
official your excellency may see proper to designate to adjust the
accounts of the several claimants; or, should it be preferred to send me
a copy of any liquidation made by the consul at Key West, I will
promptly compare it with the accounts on file in the legation, and
advise your excellency of the result without delay.
I am, &c.,
