Mr. Gresham to Mr.
Conger.
Department
of State,
Washington, July 18,
1893.
No. 283.]
Sir: I transmit a copy of letters representing that
the Brazilian Government owning the telegraph lines along the Brazilian
coast has prohibited all cipher messages from the United States to Brazil,
while allowing messages in cipher to be sent from Brazil to the United
States.
The restriction is not only an onerous fetter upon legitimate commerce, and
quite unusual in the intercourse of trading nations, but is singular in
permitting cipher messages to pass in one direction, yet not in the other.
Efforts should be made to have it altogether removed; but if this be
impossible, the expedient suggested by the writers, of
[Page 39]
lodging with the Government officers their
cipher codes, might be resorted to, although objectionable in many respects
and open to the charge that it would operate as a censorship and be
calculated to embarrass the operations of American importers, who, as the
Government is aware, take a very large proportion of the staple exports of
Brazil.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 283.]
Mr. Seligsberg to
Mr. Gresham.
The
Coffee Exchange of the City of New York,
53 Beaver street, New York,
July 13, 1893. (Received July
14.)
Sir: The Brazilian Government, owning the
telegraph lines along the Brazilian coast, has prohibited all cipher
dispatches from the United States to Brazil, while allowing messages in
cipher to be sent from Brazil to the United States. This places our
merchants, and especially the coffee trade of the United States, at a
great disadvantage and under heavy expense.
I respectfully submit to your consideration, in behalf and under
instructions of the board of managers of this exchange, the feasibility
of inducing the Brazilian Government to so modify the prohibition as to
allow merchants in Brazil, correspondents of American merchants, to
lodge with the proper Government officers in Brazil their cable or
cipher codes in use in their telegraphic correspondence, and to permit
recipients of messages to translate them in the presence and under the
direction of the proper officials.
Very respectfully,
[
seal.]
Louis
Seligsberg,
Secretary.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 283.]
Mr. Eckert to Mr.
Gresham.
Executive Office Western Union Telegraph
Company,
New
York, July 14, 1893.
(Received July 15.)
Dear Sir: The Government of Brazil has issued
instructions, on account of political disturbances, forbidding the use
of cipherer code words in telegrams sent to Brazil. As ciphers or codes
have always been in universal use by the commercial public for cable
messages, these instructions can not but result in great inconvenience
and in the restriction of business.
The Coffee Exchange at New York informs me that it has therefore written
to you a request that your Department may endeavor to induce the
Brazilian Government to so modify its instructions as to permit
correspondents of American merchants to lodge with the proper Government
officials their cable or cipher codes, and to permit the addressees of
the messages to translate them in the presence and under the direction
of the proper Government officials. The Exchange also asks that the
Western Union Telegraph Company shall indorse its request. As the action
of the Brazilian Government will naturally have an influence upon the
volume of cable messages, I shall be very glad if you will exercise such
powers as your Department may have in favor of the request of the Coffee
Exchange.
I have, etc.,
