THE CUBA RE VI E W 



15 



Articles Returned as Growth of Country. 



The protests of C. I. & M. Dingfel- 

 der, of New York, against the assess- 

 ment of duty on wooden crates or cover- 

 ings exported from Cuba and returned 

 as articles the growth, produce and 

 manufacture of the United States have 

 been overruled by Appraiser Somerville, 

 of the Board of United States General 

 Appraisers. 



The collector of customs in each case 

 added the value of the crates to that 

 of the contents, as returned by the local 

 appraiser, under the provisions of sec- 

 tion 19 of the customs administrative 

 act of 1890. 



Many importers testified, and the evi- 

 dence went to show that many of these 

 crates, or at least those of similar manu- 

 facture were exported in quantites vary- 

 ing more or less from about 3,000 crates 

 from the states of Georgia and Florida 

 and perhaps other localities in the South. 

 It is admitted that no efifort was made 

 by the importers in any instance to file 

 with the collector the papers and docu- 

 ments required by the regulations of the 

 Setcretary of the Treasury and designed 

 to prove the identity of such articles 

 when exported from and returned to 

 this country, nor has the collector 

 waived the production of export certifi- 

 cates of such merchandise which are re- 

 quired by such regulations, nor was any 

 bond given for the production of these 

 documents, nor has the local appraiser 

 returned these articles as being of the 

 kind covered by paragraph 483 covering 

 this matter. — American Industries, Jan., 

 1909. 



Cuba as a Soap Market. 



Consul-General James L. Rodgers, of 

 Habana, in response to the request of a 

 Kansas City company for information as 

 to the importation of soap into Cuba, 

 says that very nearly all soap used is 

 imported; some local manufacture is de- 

 voted to the highly perfumed varieties 

 and does not compete with the imported 

 article. The statistics available at this 

 time show total importations of ordinary 

 soap in bars for laundry and common 

 purposes of 8,827,131 pounds in one year. 

 The United States furnished about 12^2 

 per cent., Spain 80 per cent., and the 

 remainder from France. In the same 

 period the importation of toilet soaps 

 amounted to 76,188 kilos (kilo equals 

 2.2 pounds), the United States furnish- 

 ing about 50 per cent, and France 45 

 per cent. Of all other varieties the 

 importation amounted to 165,881 kilos, 

 of which the United States furnished 

 about 75 per cent, and France about 

 20 per cent. 



The Duty. 



Common soap in bars is $3.90 per 

 100 kilos. 



Toilet soap in cakes or tablets, $13 

 per 100 kilos. 



Extra fine toilet soap, whether fancy, 

 perfumed or not, and including all med- 

 icinal and medicated soaps, $26 per 100 

 kilos. 



Discoimts. 



Upon the first two classifications im- 

 portations from the United States re- 

 ceive 30 per cent, discount, and upon 

 the last 40 per cent, discount. — U. S. 

 Report, Jan. 14. 



Havana Customs Collections. 



Collections during month 



of December, 1908 $1,409,794.36 



Collections during month 



of December, 1907 1,658,207.03 



Decrease $248,412.67 



The January collections still show a 

 marked decrease. The figures for 1909 

 are $1,335,552.66 as compared with $1,- 

 639,442.41 and $1,677,950.49. 



During the calendar year of 1908 there 

 has been a falling off of more than three 

 millions in the Havana customs collec- 

 tions, as compared with the preceding 

 year. 



The following table shows this: 



The Bureau of Manufactures at Wash- 

 ington is in receipt of a communication 

 from a Cuban business man who would 

 like to enter into correspondence with par- 

 ties in the United States requiring large 

 quantities of hardwood charcoal and fire- 

 wood. The name and address may be se- 

 cured at the bureau by referring to 2989, 

 the number of the inquiry. 



