Comly to John M. Kapena, May 15, 1879

Mr. Comly to Mr. Kapena.

Sir: It is brought to my notice that certain allegations are made as to frauds and contemplated frauds upon the revenue of the United States, by the importation of sugar and rice from the Sandwich Islands that were brought there from other countries and repacked and sent forward with certificates that they were the products of those islands. It is alleged that a large sum of money had been subscribed by proprietors and business men in the Sandwich Islands, to which it was believed was to be added a further large sum to be contributed by interested parties in San Francisco, all to be paid, provided a reciprocity treaty was made and ratified; that the treaty was procured by fraudulent misrepresentations; that one of the parties who had a prominent interest in securing this treaty has purchased a large tract of unoccupied lands in one of the distant islands that contains a fine harbor, a quiet place of refuge, where he can order cargoes of rice and sugar from various parts of the Pacific Ocean to be there landed and repacked and sent up by coasting vessels to Honolulu, and other ports of export, to be shipped thence to the United States as the growth and product of the Sandwich Islands; that through these fraudulent manipulations, duty-paying sugar and rice, evading and defrauding the customs, can be landed in the ports of our Atlantic coast from the Sandwich Islands at an expense of about half a cent per pound against a saving in duties of about two and a half cents; that brokers were offering in New York and Boston cargoes of sugars to be delivered from the Sandwich Islands by authority of parties in San Francisco.

Without doubt, your excellency will clearly see the necessity I am under of promptly communicating information so injurious in its bearing upon the treaty, and so threatening in its aspect towards the customs revenue of the United States and the home producer, already sufficiently weighted by competition with the Hawaiian rice and sugar.

I await your excellency’s prompt and earnest consideration of these matters, renewing the assurances of my high respect and esteem.

I am, &c.,