[Inclosure.]
Memorandum.
A professor in the Agricultural High School at Berlin called
attention to the fact, a few days ago, in Hamburg, that he had found
the San Jose shield louse in a shipment of fruit from America. The
fruit was immediately stopped, and the customs authorities of the
frontier stations were reminded of the possibility of the
introduction of the insect by means of shipments of plants and fruit
from American ports. The reports published in the newspapers on the
subject induced the United States ambassador at Berlin to make
inquiry as to the facts. Mr. Andrew D. White, who did not seem to be
informed with regard to the destruction caused by the shield louse
in America, was thereupon apprised that the reports published in the
papers concerning a prohibition to import American fruit were partly
incorrect and partly premature, so that the statement is unfounded
that the German Government has adopted a measure affecting the
United States without having notified the American ambassador.
The fact of the matter is that an ordinance is about to be issued by
the Bundesrath (federal council) whereby the importation of fresh
plants and fresh plant waste (Pflanzenabfälle) from America,
together with casks, boxes, and other articles in which such goods
or plant waste have been packed, or kept, is to be prohibited until
further notice, and also shipments of fresh fruit and fresh-fruit
refuse (Obstabfälle) from America, together with the material
belonging thereto, are to be examined at the frontier import
station, and, in case the San Jose shield louse is found, are to be
excluded.
No claim can possibly be raised in America that such a measure is not
justified, for, according to the publications of the United States
Department of Agriculture, the shield louse has caused great
devastation in orchards everywhere in America, and American
entomologists have characterized it as the insect that is most
destructive to fruit, and its highly pernicious character has been
officially recognized by the severe measures which have been adopted
by sundry States of the American Union against one another
(examination of shipments of plants and fruits, requirement of
declarations as to their soundness, and seizure of those found to be
infected), and by various bills now before the United States
legislatures, some of which are even more severe. The German
experts, of whom inquiry has been made, regard the propagation and
diffusion of the shield louse in Germany as quite possible. After
the shield louse had been found in shipments of fruit from America,
what has been stated above was the least that could be done by
Germany for the protection of German fruit, analogously to the
measures now under discussion in the United States Congress for the
exclusion of similar destructive insects brought from foreign
countries.
In view of the example thus set by the Government of the Union, and
by various States belonging thereto, the Imperial Government thinks
that there is no ground for the assumption that it has been
influenced by agricultural interests, and not solely by a desire to
protect from the ravages of this destructive pest the cultivation of
fruit in Germany, which is a highly important interest, and which
has been developed at heavy pecuniary cost. That there is no ground
for the first assumption is shown by the fact that the importation
of fresh plants from America is quite insignificant, that the
importation of fresh fruit from the United States into Germany
during the fiscal year 1897 amounted, in round numbers, to but
$200,000, and that the season for the importation of fruit from
America and for the fruit trade in Germany is almost ended; that,
moreover, the injury done to fruit in America by the shield louse
had long been known in Germany, but that the German Government took
no active measures until the insect had actually been found in a
shipment at Hamburg, whereby the possibility of its introduction
into Germany was shown.
Washington, February 4,
1898.
