3241. FREE PORTS, St. Bartholomew.—[continued].
The interest of the United
States is that St. Bartholomew be made a
port of unlimited freedom, and such, too, is
evidently the interest of Sweden. If it be
freed by halves, the free ports of other nations,
at present in possession of the commerce, will
retain it against any new port offering no superior
advantages. The situation of St. Bartholomew
is very favorable to these views, as
it is among the most windward, and therefore
the most accessible of the West Indian Islands.—
To Baron Stahe.
Ford ed., iv, 242.
(P.
1786)
