Tomas Maria Mosquera to To the, December 26, 1872

Nos. 1 and 2.—New regulations of December 26, 1872. English translation and Spanish text.

[From La Gaceta de Madrid, December 29, 1872.—English translation.]

Colonial Office.

Your Excellency: In consideration of the representations made by the general superintendent of the treasury in the island of Cuba, respecting the inconveniences found in the practical working of the regulations at present in force for the guidance of the captains and supercargoes of vessels engaged in commerce between foreign ports and those of the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico, and the expediency of limiting the privileges enjoyed by mail-steamers, and to re-establish, in all their vigor, the provisions affecting other steamers, principally employed in the transportation of articles of commerce, the King (whom may God save) has been pleased to order that the regulations in question should be drawn up in the form exhibited in the accompanying document, and that, as thus modified, they shall go into operation thirty days after their publication by the consuls and vice-consuls of Spain in the official newspapers of their respective districts; to which end His Majesty charges me to indicate to you, as by his royal order I now do, the necessity of notifying the said functionaries, through the ministry under your worthy charge, that they shall, as soon as possible, cause the accompanying regulations to be published in the said newspapers, and to see that they are frequently reproduced, and also that they shall communicate to the general superintendent of the treasury in Cuba and the chief financial officer of Porto Rico the date of their publication.

May God guard Your Excellency many years.