458 



FOREIGN OFFICE REPORTS. 



[March 1896. 



Servian Minister of Commerce — who has since reappointed a 

 permanent Consul-General at that port — to arrange for the 

 chartering of vessels for conveying swine to Marseilles. Under 

 his auspices, trial consignments were forwarded at reduced 

 railway fares and free of export dues. The result appears 

 to have been a disappointment. The price realised at 

 Marseilles was a little over 70 centimes per kilogramme (Sd, 

 per lb.), whereas the average selling price of the same pigs at 

 Steinbruck would be 44 kreuzers, or from 90 centimes to 1 franc 

 (4cZ. to 4i(X. per lb.), with infinitely smaller expenditure on 

 transport. 



The Hungarian market has, besides, a great advant-^ge iux 

 being accessible at all seasons, whereas the sea route to France 

 would be found impracticable during the hot summer months. 

 The present demand for foreign swine at Marseilles is also far 

 below the two or three hundred thousand head which Servia is 

 accustomed to dispose of annually. Under such conditions, it 

 appears fairly safe to conclude that there are but slender chances 

 in favour of a development of this trade with France unless- 

 Hungary should permanently close her frontier to Servian pigs. 



Efforts which have been made by the Servian Government to 

 secure an additional outlet to Italy may be dismissed with a 

 brief mention as the route via Fiume is traversed by Hungarian 

 railways and would be liable to arbitrary closure equally with 

 the Steinbruck route. 



There seems to remain only one alternative course for Servia^ 

 to adopt under these circumstances, and this is to kill her own 

 pigs and prepare them for distant exportation in the form of 

 ham, bacon, and lard. A Servian company has already been 

 formed which proposes to establish a factory and cattle market 

 at Belgrade. This enterprise, which bears the character of a 

 national movement, has received support from the Legislature 

 in the shape of two laws which have been passed during the 

 present session of the Skupshtina. 



The first of these Acts has a general character, and is 

 entitled a " Law for granting State Aid to Meat-Curing Esta- 

 blishments." It authorises the Government to grant particular 

 privileges, for a period of 10 years, to any companies or private 

 individuals who may propose to erect establishments for slaughter- 

 ing stock and curing meat ; and confers the same powers that 

 the Government already possess under the Law of 1874 for 

 according remission of customs dues and taxes in favour of 

 machinery and other material necessary for the construction and 

 maintenance of industrial factories or of their outgoing manu- 

 factured produce. The free cutting of building timber in the 

 public woods and forests is provided for, and salt — which is a 

 Government monopoly — may be sold to concessionaires, under 

 the present Act, at a reduction of 50 per cent, on its current 

 price. 



Article 9 provides that Government contracts shall be given 

 to concessionaires at prices 5 per cent, in excess of those pro- 



