Mr. Grip to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

Mr. Secretary of State:

I have not failed to inform the Government of the King of the contents of your excellency’s letter, dated the 9th instant, by which you were pleased to advise me that the Treasury Department ordered by a circular of the 30th ultimo that all Norwegian vessels be remeasured in ports of the United States.

This decision, which my Government has learned with regret, is, according to the circular, caused by the apparent lack of conformity of the new Norwegian rules to those adopted by the Government of the United States and by the circumstance that there is no mention made of American steamers in the Norwegian circular of September 21, 1893.

In reply to these objections I am authorized to say that the rules adopted by Norway are nearly the same as those of Great Britain, whose vessels, if I am correctly informed, are exempt from remeasurement in the United States. My Government is therefore fain to hope that the Norwegian certificates will be accorded the same favor.

In regard to the second objection, I take the liberty of stating that the rule applicable to American steamers, in accordance with the Norwegian circular of September 21, 1893, is not laid out in section 2 as quoted in the American circular of June 30 last, but in section 4, which provides that remeasurement for the purpose of ascertaining the deduction for engines of steamers measured under the Moorsom method shall be made if, according to paragraph 2 of the same section, the master of the vessel does not wish to pay taxes according to his national register. The measurement of the engine room is then “optional” for American vessels. I take the liberty of remarking at this place that remeasurement, if it should be made, constitutes an advantage for American vessels, whose taxes, in such cases, will be assessed upon a reduced space, and that, as I am formally authorized to declare, it is done without cost.

In view of the foregoing statement I have had the honor to make, touching the character of the new rules themselves and the advantages secured to American vessels and to their registers in Norwegian ports, I venture to express the hope that the Government of the United [Page 642] States will be pleased to again take the matter into consideration to the end of causing the new Norwegian certificates of admeasurement to be accepted, as also of accepting, as heretofore, such certificates as may still be drawn in accordance with the old rules.

Accept, etc.,

A. Grip.