for Foreign Affairs to Comly, May 21, 1879

Mr. Kapena to Mr. Comly.

Sir: Referring your excellency to my dispatch forwarded this day, to which I intend this as a supplement, I have the honor to inclose a letter and statement from the collector-general of customs. By them you will find that all the sugar imported into this country since October, 1876, amounts to 213,072 pounds, of which 22,000 pounds were imported from Germany, and the remainder, 191,072 pounds, from the United States, and is the product of their refineries. You know that the course of business with us at present is to make no refined sugar, as it is not worth while for any of us to make refined sugar for our own limited market, and, therefore, all our supplies of that kind come from abroad, and you see how small a supply it is; and yet I apprehend that it will not be a disagreeable fact to you to learn that so large a portion of it comes from the United States.

You will see that there has been only 180 pounds of unrefined sugar brought into the country in two years, and a half, and that was from China, surplus stores of ships bringing emigrants.

You will further see that no vessel has carried any cargo from Kahului, the port in Maui referred as being near to Mr. Spreckel’s estate. I do not refer to this as being a point of importance, except so far as it shows that any statements that sugars have been shipped from that port are not true. Inasmuch as the region of which Kahului is the port is one of our chief sugar-producing regions, it is as likely to go from there as from anywhere in the future.

I think it worth while to remind you that there are no what may be called private harbors in this country, by which I mean that there are no remote harbors which can serve as shelter for illegal transactions. The landings for the most part, outside of the ports of public entry, though affording sufficient facilities for the taking off of cargo, would make the landing of any cargo most risky and laborious. And there is a great difference between a place sufficiently convenient for the landing of supplies necessary for a planter and one commodious enough for the taking on and off of cargoes intended to defraud the revenues of the United States, which must be of considerable quantities to make it remunerative; and I would likewise submit to your consideration whether’ a shrewd man of business would be likely to submit himself to the risk of exposure and forfeiture of cargo, and whether any man of sound sense would imagine for a moment that he can rely upon the silence of the large number of men that would be cognizant of the transaction, in view of the immense rewards which exposure of it would bring to the informer.

I likewise inclose you an abstract of the rice imported into this country. This I do because I do not wish that there should be the slightest appearance of any concealment. The rice is imported for the consumption of our own laborers; and you will see how small a quantity it is, and it is steadily decreasing, whereas, if it be the means of fraud upon your country, it would be increasing. In the year 1877 the amount was 928,905 pounds. Our rice-planters were not in so extensive a form at that time, and orders had necessarily gone forward for rice wherewith to feed our own men. In 1879 the importation into this country of all foreign rice whatsoever fell off to 541,020 pounds, and so tar in the present year the amount imported is 378,994 pounds.

It is all inferior rice, of even a different species from ours, and cannot possibly be mistaken for Hawaiian rice. One million seventy-six thousand seven hundred and seventy-three pounds of it were brought from Japan, and pays a duty in this country of one and a half cents per pound, and not one pound of it has ever been re-exported from this country. I think your excellency will see that the amount is so small itself, and more especially when you consider the number of hands in which it is, and that they are all, with the single exception of Mr. Waterhouse, consumers of the article, being agents for sugar plantations, as to justify the assertion that it is impossible that it should be imported for fraudulent purposes—impossible, because so very unremunerative, more especially when, as I have said above, it is taken into consideration that the duty in this country would be added to the first cost, freight hither, landing, storage, and repacking, certainly the margin on so small a quantity of rice would not justify the risk of exposure. You see that Mr. Waterhouse’s purchase was only 10,000 pounds.

With my highest and most distinguished consideration,

I have, &c.,