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This supposition the Department bases upon your statement that the circumstances indicate that Mr. Nejedly has sought the protection of the United States only for the purpose of evading the performance of the duties of citizenship in Austria and without any intention to assume the duties of citizenship in this country. However this may be, birth in this country of a foreign father, a residence of six or seven years thereafter, followed by departure with the father (who abandons the country immediately after his naturalization) and by a continuous residence abroad up to the thirty-seventh year without having returned to this country, without any identification with its interests, and without any apparent intention to come hither and assume the duties of citizenship, must be held to constitute a very slender basis for a claim to the protection of the United States. For a government, without any explanation of circumstances, to sustain a claim to protection might seem to indicate a readiness to submit to imposition upon itself, practiced for the purpose of imposition upon another government.

The Department can not, as at present advised, direct the issuance of a passport to Mr. Nejedly.

I am, etc.,

JAMES G. BLAINE.

No. 155.]

Mr. Grant to Mr. Blaine.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Vienna, May 25, 1891. (Received June 13.) SIR: In pursuance of telegraphic instructions from the Department of State, the United States legation at Berlin has furnished me with a copy of your instruction No. 245,* of May 1, and of its inclosures, relative to the alleged assisted emigration to the United States by the authorities at Stauzach of one Nikolaus Bader, belonging to the criminal or imbecile classes of Austria-Hungary. It having been discovered, after the instruction in question was written, that Stauzach is a town in the Austrian Tyrol, and that there is no such place in Germany, I have concluded that the Department's purpose in causing the case to be sent to me was that I should proceed in the matter as if the instruction had been originally addressed to me, and I have accordingly brought the subject to the attention of the minister for foreign affairs in a note dated the 22d instant, a copy of which is inclosed, in such a manner as I trust will meet with the Department's approval.

I have, etc.,

[Inclosure in No. 155.]

F. D. GRANT.

Mr. Grant to Count Kalnoky.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
Vienna, May 22, 1891.

YOUR EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to inform your excellency that I have received an instruction from the honorable the Secretary of State at Washington, directing my attention to a letter addressed to him by the Secretary of the Treasury, accompanied by the affidavit of one Nikolaus Bader, an alien, who was upon his arrival at New York on the steamship Waesland, on the 23d of April last, refused permission to land by the Superintendent of Immigration at that port.

*See instructions to United States Minister to Germany.

Upon examination of the affidavit aforesaid it appears that Bader is a native of Stauzach (supposed to be in the Austrian Tyrol), and that his passage to the United States was paid by the authorities of Stauzach. Bader states that in 1864 he committed a murder, for which he was imprisoned and served one year, when he was declared insane and confined in an insane asylum, where he has been twenty-four years, and from which he was discharged somewhat over a year ago; that he requested to be sent to America, and that the authorities then sent him there.

This sworn declaration of Nikolaus Bader, if true, presents a case in which an attempt has been made, as it is thought your excellency will be ready to admit, to perpetrate a great wrong upon the Government and people of the United States. Serious as the incident is in itself, it attains additional significance in so far as it suggests a possible condition of affairs with respect to certain emigration from this Empire to the United States which could not fail to be injurious to the institutions and good government of that country, and which therefore demands a prompt investigation with a view to its suppression. It is not to be entertained for a moment that an act so unfriendly to my Government could have been committed with the knowledge of the Imperial and Royal Government of Austria-Hungary. Bearing in mind the cordial relations so happily existing between the two Governments, this legation must assume that the emigration to the United States of a person belonging to the imbecile or criminal classes of this Empire, if assisted by the authorities of any city or province in Austria-Hungary, must have been the work of subordinate officials. I have therefore the honor most respectfully to request, in pursuance of instructions on the subject, that your excellency will be pleased to cause inquiry to be made in the matter to the end that the authorities at Stauzach may be rebuked if Bader's accusation against them be found true, and that steps may be taken to prevent any repetition of the offense which forms the subject of this complaint. I avail myself, etc.,

F. D. GRANT.

Mr. Wharton to Mr. Grant.

No. 124.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, June 16, 1891.

SIR: Acknowledging the receipt of your dispatch No. 155, of the 25th ultimo, concerning the case of Nikolaus Bader, alleged to have been assisted to emigrate to the United States, I have to inform you that the Department heartily approves your note to the foreign office on the subject.

I am, etc.,

WILLIAM F. WHARTON,

Acting Secretary.

Mr. Grant to Mr. Blaine.

No. 168.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Vienna, July 15, 1891. (Received July 31.) SIR: With reference to my dispatch No. 155, of the 25th of May last, and to your reply of the 16th ultimo, No. 124, relative to the alleged assisted emigration to the United States by the authorities at Stauzach, Austrian Tyrol, of one Nikolaus Bader, belonging to the criminal or imbecile classes of Austria-Hungary, I have now the honor to transmit, for your information, a translation of a note dated the 9th instant from Count Welsersheimb, chief of section of the imperial and royal minis try of foreign affairs, communicating to me the result of the investigation which he had caused to be instituted in this case.

H. Ex. 1, pt. 1—2

My first impulse was to forward to you the count's note without com. ment, to the end that the Department might form its own impression as to the sufficiency of the answer of this Government to the complaint of the United States aninfluenced by any observations coming from me on the subject. Upon reflection, however, it has seemed to me not improper that I should give expression at once to my dissatisfaction with the explanation given in this case by the Imperial and Royal Government.

The complaint of the United States, founded on the affidavit of Nikolaus Bader, was that he, a murderer, subsequently found to be of unsound mind and confined in an insane asylum for a period of twentyfour years, was, upon his discharge somewhat over a year ago, sent at his request to the United States by the authorities at Stauzach, Austria. Such act, if proven, could scarcely be regarded in any other light than as distinctly unfriendly, and should meet with the prompt disavowal of the National Government, coupled with the assurance that the subordinate authorities directly responsible would be severely reprimanded. The investigation of the circumstances of the case instituted at the instance of this legation appears to have developed the fact that Bader committed the murder in question, but that it was shown at the trial, upon the testimony of medical men, that he was irresponsible, and that he was accordingly acquitted and afterwards confined in an insane asylum for twenty-four years. It would seem, therefore, that Bader's own statements of his criminality and imbecility are substantially verified; and the only mitigating circumstances connected with his shipment to the United States are that he was finally discharged from the asylum as cured, and that upon his request he was assisted by his community to go to America, the "assistance" referred to consisting in the payment of the expenses of his journey. It is not doubted that the Department will be struck with the fact that reasonable precautions could not have been taken looking to the determination of Bader's permanent restoration to sound mind, inasmuch as he was allowed, if not assisted, to attempt to take up his residence among a foreign but a friendly people in less than a year after his discharge from an insane asylum in which he had been confined for twenty-four years.

Moreover, the effort on the part of the authorities at Stauzach to evade responsibility for the assisted emigration of this imbecile criminal by the statement that Bader's desire to go to America was assisted "by the community" impresses me as worthy of but little consideration. It is not my experience that “ communities" are active to the extent of contributing money for such purposes unless they are incited by other motives than those of humanity, and it is usually some one in authority who is chiefly instrumental in bringing about such a result. Count Welsersheimb does not enter into details as to how the contributions were raised; he gives no explanation as to the reasons of the "community" for using its individual and private resources for such a purpose; he expresses no regret that the incident should have happened; he gives no assurance that measures will be taken to prevent a similar occurrence in the future; and, in short, I can not help entertaining the opinion that the Imperial and Royal Government has failed to accord to the subject the importance its gravity deserves.

Should the Department approve, I might address a dignified but decided note to the ministry of foreign affairs somewhat in the spirit of this dispatch. It may be, however, that you will consider that sufficient prominence has been given to the position of the United States with

respect to this subject in the note which I wrote to Count Kalnoky on the 22d of May last, and that we may accept the statement now furnished by Count Welsersheimb as relieving this Government of opprobrium in the matter, inasmuch as the emigration of Bader appears to have been brought about by private rather than official influence.

I have, etc.,

F. D. GRANT.

[Inclosure in No. 168-Translation.] Count Welsersheimb to Mr. Grant.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS,
Vienna, July 9, 1891.

The imperial and royal ministry of foreign affairs has not neglected to make inquiry into the subject mentioned in the esteemed note of May 22, No. 79, and has found that:

Nikolaus Bader, now 59 years old, by trade a mason, inflicted a mortal wound upon Anna Maria Kürle on May 27, 1864, for which offense he was tried, but found, on examination by medical men, to be irresponsible, and was therefore acquitted. He was sent to the insane asylum in Hall, Tyrol, to be cured, where he remained until the end of June, 1889.

From this institute he was discharged as cured, whereupon he expressed a desire to go to America, which desire his community at Stauzach assisted him to realize in furnishing him with the necessary means of travel, amounting to 100 florins; of this 76 florins was given to a third person to defray Bader's expenses from Innsbruck to New York, and the balance of 26 (sic) florins was handed over to Bader himself.

This shows that Bader was not a condemned criminal; that at the time he went to America he was not insane; and that he went there at his own request, in which he was assisted by his community only to the extent of furnishing him with the neces

sary means.

While the undersigned brings the foregoing to the knowledge of the honorable envoy of the United States, he begs, etc.,

WELSERSHEIMB,

For the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

No. 173.]

Mr. Grant to Mr. Blaine.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Vienna, July 27, 1891. (Received August 6.) SIR: I have the honor to request information upon the following subject:

On the 17th of September, 1869, in Washington, D. C., there was born to Mr. and Mrs. Mazel a son. Mr. Mazel was at the time the minister of the Netherlands to the United States. His wife was an American citizen. After the birth of the son in question the Mazel family continued to reside in the United States until the middle of July, 1871, when they came abroad, and have subsequently lived at Stockholm, St. Petersburg, and Vienna, at each of which capitals Mr. Mazel represented his Government, and is now the minister of the Netherlands to the court of Austria-Hungary.

During all this time young Mr. Mazel has been either with his parents ór has been placed by them at institutions of learning in different cities. He is now 21 years of age, and, while he has never committed any overt act-by paying taxes or by exercising the right of suffrage-tending to confirm his allegiance to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to which he

was born a subject, he has also never since 1871 returned to the United States.

It is now young Mr. Mazel's wish, in which he has the cordial acquiescence of his parents, to go to the United States and to become a citizen thereof, and the question arises, therefore, what formalities will be necessary for him to observe in order to acquire the said desired citizenship. Will the law and the regulations governing such matters be satisfied and complied with if young Mr. Mazel appears before a competent court in the United States, renounces his allegiance to his sovereign, the Queen of the Netherlands, declares it to be his wish and purpose to be admitted to citizenship in the United States, and gives evidence of his birth in Washington, D. C., and that he is 21 years of age? In other words, would he, under the circumstances, be at once admitted to citizenship of the United States, or would it be necessary for him to comply with the statute governing naturalization?

I have not been able to find for my guidance a case in Wharton's International Law Digest (sections 183-185) exactly covering the circumstances herein set forth, and therefore would be glad to have the Department's ruling in the matter.

I have, etc.,

F. D. GRANT.

No. 180.]

Mr. Grant to Mr. Blaine.

[Extract.]

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Vienna, August 1, 1891. (Received August 20.) SIR: It is a matter of history that the port of Trieste, which became a part of the Austrian dominion in the year 1332, was declared free by the Emperor Karl VI, father of the illustrious Empress Maria Theresa, in the year 1719, and that goods arriving at the said port have been entered without the payment of customs duties from that date to the 1st day of July last, a period of more than one hundred and seventyone years. This action on the part of the Emperor Karl VI is supposed to have been taken with a view to imparting activity to trade and to enable the inhabitants of the district in which Trieste is situated to enter into competition with the flourishing city of Venice in commercial importance.

By an act passed by the Reichsrath at its present session the port of Trieste has been closed and placed on the same footing, in regard to customs duties, as other cities of this Empire from and after the 1st day of July, 1891.

I have, etc.,

F. D. GRANT.

Mr. Wharton to Mr. Grant.

No. 133.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, August 6, 1891.

SIR: In reply to your dispatch No. 168, of the 15th ultimo, in relation to the case of Nikolaus Bader, the assisted emigrant, you may address a dignified note to the foreign office in the sense you suggest, saying,

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