Von Behr to Bayard Taylor, November 8, 1878

Letter of the committee of the German Fisheries Society to Mr. Taylor.

To Mr. Bayard Taylor, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary:

Excellency: Under the patronage of his imperial and royal highness the Crown Prince, as patron of the German Fisheries Society, there will be held, about the end of April, 1880, in this city, a second international exhibition of products and utensils of the sea and inland fisheries, regarding which the inclosed programme will furnish your excellency with full information.

We expect thus again to attract universal attention to the fishery industry, and to awaken a wider interest in the intelligent management of waters as well as a practical pisciculture. While the first exhibition of this kind of the society with the above-named object was attended with very gratifying results, and as the connections of the society have extensively widened, it is to be expected that the proposed exhibition will attain a completeness which can but result in stimulating and benefiting all the aims of the fishery industry. Our object consequently would be, the wider we extend our circle, the more to subserve the interests of all civilized nations.

The great growth which the fisheries have enjoyed in the United States of America makes it desirable for us to see them very fully represented at our exhibition.

We address ourselves, therefore, to your excellency with the urgent request to lend your powerful support to our undertaking, and to bring it to the knowledge of your government, and in the respective districts of the United States, to invite an active participation in our exhibition.

For the committee of the German Fishery Society: