Purrington to João Maurício Vanderlei, Baron of Cotegipe, November 30, 1875

No. 20. Mr. Purrington to Mr. Fish.

Sir: I have the honor to inform you that a new, or at least a formal construction has been placed upon the custom-house regulations of this port in regard to friendly ships of war therein; and as it has probably grown out of a controversy between our squadron and the inspector of customs, which there is reason to believe may be laid before the Navy Department, I have thought it proper to explain as briefly as possible the circumstances connected therewith.

Since the difficulty of two years ago, alluded to by Mr. Shannon in his No. 151, private stores have been dispatched free of duty; as a rule in the admiral’s absence from Rio de Janeiro, they have been given up on the order of Paymaster A. W. Bacon, and, as a matter of practice, even in the admiral’s presence.

In the latter part of August certain cigars for the Brooklyn, and addressed as usual in the care of Mr. Bacon, as naval storekeeper, were refused free dispatch on his (Bacon’s) request, the inspector, as bound to do in strictness, asking the admiral’s request, on receipt of which the cigars were to be delivered. On the contrary, the request was returned briefly indorsed, “not possible.”

The Brooklyn being about to sail, in order to obtain the cigars, which, however, were not delivered in time, the duties were paid under protest and the case referred by the admiral to the legation in a note, of which inclosure 1 is a copy.

Calling at the foreign office in the absence of the minister, I stated the case to Baron de Cabo Frio, director-general, who requested me to restate it in an unofficial note.

Alter some days a verbal message was sent me declining the request, on the ground that private goods in private vessels were not exempt from duty.

The same day wine was dispatched free of duty for the French vessel “Vénus” on the request of the minister.

Partly because this favor to the French was a flat contradiction of the principle, and partly because our officers complained that they knew not what might be imported by them duty free, and that in the then state of affairs they were subject to the variable decisions of the inspector, I addressed an official note, of which inclosure 2 is a copy, simply asking whether a new construction of the rule had been made or if the favor was no longer extended. I also verbally explained that under the principle advanced the entire table of officers would be taxed, since they commuted their rations and purchased their own mess-stores.

In the first instance, H. E. Baron de Cotegipe, who referred it to himself as minister of finance as well as of state, inclined to even go so far as to put naval officers on the same footing with secretaries of legation and attachés, who do not import goods free of duty.

At length he gave the decision of which inclosure 3 contains two copies and a translation.

I should not have alluded to this matter were it not that the peculiar course of the inspector in several cases, now happily arranged, has caused, not unnaturally, a little irritation on the part of some of those interested, and I have understood that the matter would be directly or indirectly referred to Washington, and also because I presumed the rule of Brazil in this matter might be known with advantage at the Treasury Department.

I have, &c.,

Table of the quantity of wine for chiefs and officers to which free dispatch is granted and of which the opinion of the ministry of foreign affairs of this date treats.

Extract from the ministry of finance, January 24, 1875, referred to in that of October 30, 1875.

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Still desiring to facilitate, as far as compatible with the revenue and the service of the navy of friendly powers, the dispatch of goods and objects from the custom house of this district, which shall come in packets or merchant-ships for foreign vessels, and also giving warning of the inconvenience that may result from the delay of the proper documents on the part of the respective governments, I hereby authorize the counselor-inspector from this date to grant, without prejudice from the revenue, (fiscalisação,) free dispatch to goods and objects which chiefs of foreign legations accredited to this court shall officially declare to him are intended for the consumption of the naval forces of their respective nations, indicating their place of shipment, the vessel transporting them, and the quality, quantity, contents, and marks of the respective packages.

And, since in the project of a new tariff there is admitted for this purpose the request of the chief of naval station, I, from this date, allow this practice.