The record-union., 1898-04-29

tween the two belligerents. This as
surance was conveyed to the Embas-
sador, White, and is looked upon as
practically equivalent to a formal dec
laration of neutrality. Germany, Aus
tria and Portugal are the last of the
important nations to declare their at
titude
The apprehension as to Portugal's
course was considerably removed to-
day by the call of Viscount De Santo-
Thryso, who gave strong assurances
t. the safe Department trait 1rtugal
would remain strictly neutral The
Portuguese Minister expects the official
declaration almost hourly. Although
Portugal explains her delay on the
ground that the declaration of war was
not made until the 24th inst, yet Great
Britain declares neutrality with I'M
usual prOmptness.
The effect of Great Britain's speedy
action was to force the United States
fleet to leave HOngkong, while the eff
feet of Portugars delay has been to
permit the Spanish fleet to remain at
the Cape Verde Islands. This speedy
action in the first case was harmful
to American interests, while delayed
action in the second case was equally
harmful for American interests.
AS to the reports from London that
the United States had sent a threaten
ing notification to Portugal that she
would be regarded as an ally of Spain
unless the Spanish fleet was ordered
from the Cape Verde Islands, no con-
firmation could be secured from the
State Department officers or from the
Portuguese Minister. On the contrary,
these reports We're dismissed as highly
improbable When the Minister'S at
tention was called to dispatches an
nOuncing that no reports would be al
lowed to leave Cape Verde concerning
the movements of the Spanish ships,
he said this, of course, did not apply
to official information transmitted by
United States officials at Cape Verde to
the officials here will not be curtailed
in their sources of information as to
the movements of the Cape Verde fleet.
Attention is being centered on the
course of Austria. Her delay in de-
claring neutrality causes no material
inconvenience, as Austria has no ports
at which Spanish ships can take refuge,
but it discloses that Austria's strong
tendencies are with Spain, owing to the
Idynastic relations between the thrones
of Austria and Spain.
Foreign Governments, through their
representative in Washington. are be-
ginning to show much concern over
that feature of the war tariff bill now
before Congress which increases the
tonnage tax on transatlantic shipping
to 70 cents per ton. 1t is said this
increase is about 800 per cent. the
present rate being about 3 cents per
ton, and that nearly the entire burden
of the 800 per cent. falls upon the
transatlantic shipping of Great Brit
ain, Germany, France. and one or two
other commercial nations
A leading diplomatic official stated to-
day that, roughly speaking, the At
lantic trade was carried on by about
100 American steamships and about
1000 British, French, German and 9TH
er foreign steamships; also, that the
heavy tonnage tax would be practically
insignificant as against American
steamships, while it would be very
onerous against foreign shipping A
transatlantic liner of 10000 tons, he
said. would pay 20 cents per ton, or
$1,000 every time it entered an Amer
lean port. Thus far, however, no Off
cial action has been taken on the sub
ject by foreign nations, and it does not
seem likely that such official action is
possible, as the heavy tonnage tax is
caused by war expedient which for
| eign shipping must bear as long as they
use American ports. There are init
nations, however, that it may have the
effect of diverting shipping away from
the American ports to Halifax, Mon
treal and other Canadian ports.
In other respects the war tariff bill
attracts little attention in foreign quar-
tiers, as the main increase of taxation
is on articles of domestic consumption,
while duties on foreign imports remain
practically unchanged.