The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-12-07
FRANCE AND OUR PORK.
The Story of the Removal of the Pro
hibition Against It.

The Story of the Removal of the Pro-
hibition Against It.
PARIS, Dec. 6-In the matter of the de-
cree Withdrawing the prohibition of the i'm
portation Of American pork, French Of
ficlals are desirous OF having it understood
that their action was practically decided
upon year ago, but actually settled last
July, when the Chamber OF Deputies gave
an Overwhelming vote In favor OF
the bill. They say nothing then prevented
the withdrawal OF the decree, but acciden-
tai delay In the Senate cause1 by the two
cabinet crises in the last three days of the
session. At that time the governments fully
intended TO Withdraw the decree
ali i'n'a the necesss1S weSE and nqoDorotIooa hSd
made for the event. The French officials also
insist that they caused the removal OF the
prohibition by the German government,
which did not intend to withdraw its
prohibition unless France did. The Ger
man embassy at Paris. French officials
declare, was constantly sending to
the government office and 10 the American
legation trying to find out the progress of
the negotiations. The vote In the French
Chamber of Deputies showed them that the
French government was absolutely COM
mitted to removal Of the prohibition and
could not decently withdraw from the POSI-
tion.
GERMANY STEALS A MARCH.
The delay In the Senate's action gave the
Germans a chance to get in ahead. 80 they
instructed Count Arco- Valley, the German
minister at Washington. to arrange the
matter through Gen. Foster as speedily as
possible. No considerable effort had
been made In any other quarter
until the negotiations were brought
nearly to a conclusion here, and congress
bad published some Of the correspopdence.
1t was openly said in the debate and said
everywhere privately by French politicians
that they were forced TO defeat the govern
%e1t men efforts flor ,d to restrict restrict the duty
ward to 90 francs by the action
Of Germany and Italy. They say II we had
not named the same duuy with these
countries, we would not have bean Offering
a premium TO bring all the American pork
here In rivalry with our farmers, and keen
1t out OF Germany and Italy.
MINISTER REEDS VIEWS.
The American minister TO France. Mr..
Whitelaw Reid. was called upon recently
by representative of the Associated Press
and urged to give his views upon these
points. Mr.. Reid hesitated at first to give
utterauce to anything for publication,
but finally said: "Yes, it has been
long struggle. Almost the first
instructions I received from the Americas
government were upon this subject. The
home administration was very much IA
earnest about IL. Still so far as the French
government was concerned:the struggle bad
been over since the close OF the
diplomatic correspondence on the subject
In September, 1890. Since that date the
French cabinet has been absolutely unani-
nous for the withdrawal of the duty, and
for 12 franc duty. 1t named that duty In
the tariff bill sent to the Chamber
of Deputies, and has steadily aud
Chamber OF Deputies gave the bill its ad-
hesion in July last, but raised the pro-
posed duty to 90 francs. The Senate made
a most determined resistance and finally
raised the duty again to 25 francs"
RURAL FRANCE AGAINST 1T.
Mr.. Reid said: "Au rural France
seemed TO be its opponents and especially
the region about Nantes Among its
friends, besides all the members of the gov
ernment and especially Messrs. Ribot,
Constans, Roche, DeVelle and
cerned, We had M. Meline, the
great protectionsst leader In the chamber,
president OF the tariff commission now and
president Of the last chamber; Jules Ferry,
former premier, now president of the Sem
ate tariff commission; Jules SIegfried and
Felix Favre, the deputies for Havre, and
scores OF others In both houses. In one
debate four members Of the cabinet inter.
vened in behalf Of our measure. NJ. Roche
made an especially cogeut argument, which
had the greatest influence. Il pleased me
as / listened to him TO remember
that he is an old newspaper man. NJ. Me-
line accomplished a great thing too, last
July, when he got an unanimous report
from the tariff commission, consisting OF
fifty members. in favor of the BILL"