tion of the question whether the Lena shall be repaired immediately so as to put to sea or be disarmed and laid up until the close of the war. If repaired, only such bare repairs can be allowed as may be necessary for seaworthiness and for taking her back to nearest home port, and even such repairs can be permitted only on condition that they do not prove to be too extensive. If disarmed she will be laid up at the Mare Island Navy-Yard. Inspection made by United States officers at San Francisco discloses that the repairs asked for include complete outfit of hew boilers and reconstruction of engines, consuming at least four or five months, or according to the captain's estimate, eight months, and amounting to renovation of the vessel. This can not be allowed with due regard to neutrality. An immediate answer is desired, as the matter is urgent. A decision between the two alternatives should be made so that this Government may close the incident not later than to-morrow. ALVEY A. ADEE, Acting Secretary of State. Count Cassini to Mr. Adee. [Telegram.-Translation.] RUSSIAN EMBASSY, Bar Harbor, Me., September 15, 1904. I receive this very moment your telegram of the 14th. It is materially impossible to receive an answer from St. Petersburg today. I beg the President to allow a delay of forty-eight hours to permit me to receive instructions from my Government. Mr. Adee to Count Cassini. [Telegram.] CASSINI. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 15, 1904. The admiral at San Francisco advises me this morning that the captain of the Lena writes him that the ship being unseaworthy must disarm, and asks to be allowed to make needed repairs. When the President shall have approved the conditions necessary to insure the neutralization of the Lena and her officers and crew until the end of the war, and to permit necessary repairs, the admiral will be instructed to cause the disarmament to be effected, whereupon I shall have pleasure in advising you further. ALVEY A. ADEE, Acting Secretary of State. Mr. Adee to Count Cassini. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 15, 1904. Referring to my telegram of this morning, I have the honor to advise you that the President has this afternoon issued an order directing that the Russian armed transport Lena, now at San Francisco, be taken in custody by the naval authorities of the United States and disarmed, under the following conditions: First. Vessel to be taken to Mare Island Navy-Yard and there disarmed by removal of small guns, breechblocks of large guns, small arms, ammunition and ordnance stores, and such other dismantlement as may be prescribed by the commandant of the navy-yard. Second. Written guarantee that Lena shall not leave San Francisco until peace shall have been concluded. Officers and crew to be paroled, not to leave San Francisco until some other understanding as to their disposal may be reached between this Government and both belligerents. Third. After disarmament, vessel may be removed to private dock for such reasonable repairs as will make her seaworthy and preserve her in good condition during detention, or be so repaired at the navyyard, should the Russian commander so elect. While at private dock the commandant of the navy-yard at Mare Island shall have custody of the ship, and the repairs shall be overseen by an engineer officer to be detailed by commandant of navy-yard. Fourth. The cost of repairs, of private docking, and of maintenance of the ship and her officers and crew while in custody to be borne by the Russian Government, but the berthing at Mare Island and the custody and surveillance of the vessel to be borne by the United States. Fifth. When repaired, if peace shall not then have been concluded, the vessel to be taken back to Mare Island and there held in custody until the end of the war. ALVEY A. ADEE, Acting Secretary of State. Mr. Adee to Count Cassini. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 16, 1904. DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR: Your telegram of yesterday reached me in the evening. As I explained to Mr. Hansen, the request of my telegram of the 14th for a decision between the alternatives in the Lena case was superseded by the formal application of Captain Berlinsky and by my telegram to you of yesterday morning apprising you of the decision to disarm. I am glad the incident has been so satisfactorily closed. ALVEY A. ADEE. Count Cassini to Mr. Adee. [Translation.] BAR HARBOR, September 20, 1904. MR. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: The Imperial Government has just advised me, and charges me to acquaint the Federal Government with the fact that it adheres to the provisions taken by the President concerning the disarmament and the other measures and provisions of the transport Lena, which entered the port of San Francisco on the 11th instant, and whose boilers and other machinery demand urgent repairs. There remains to settle the question of the repatriation of the crew of the transport Lena. The Imperial Government expresses the firm assurance that the Federal authorities will facilitate the passage of the officers and seamen of the Lena across the territory of the United States, according them all the assistance compatible with the duties of neutrality and the amicable relations existing between the two countries. Captain Berlinsky, commander of the Lena, has expressed to me a desire that five officers and 100 seamen shall remain in San Francisco for necessary (intérieur) service on the transport. I do not doubt, Mr. Assistant Secretary of State, that these requests, which I have the honor to communicate to you, will be received by the Federal Government in the spirit of justice and impartiality which distinguishes it. Be pleased to accept, Mr. Assistant Secretary of State, etc., CASSINI. Mr. Loomis to Count Cassini. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 24, 1904. MY DEAR MR. AMBASSADOR: Your note of the 20th instant, addressed to Mr. Adee, has been received, and as I have returned to my post, the agreeable duty of replying to it devolves upon me. I have shown it to the President, who is glad that the Imperial Government appreciates the course which, in the exercise of his executive prerogative and in consonance with international law, he found it incumbent upon him to pursue in respect to the disarmament of the Lena in execution of the policy of strict neutrality adopted by this Government. The President, however, directs me to say that he would not find it consistent with the neutral course it behooves him to follow to act upon a request for the repatriation of any of the officers or crew of the Leng unless he were advised that the two belligerent powers were in accord as to doing so. Without their agreement to that end he regards the position of these men as being identical in principle with that of a military force entering neutral territory and there necessarily to be held by the neutral. He could not take upon himself the function of repatriating the men under parole to return to Russia, for that would be the prerogative of the belligerent and not of the neutral. If it should be the wish of your Government to have the request brought to the attention of the Japanese Government it may be timely for me to say that we have an intimation to the effect that if overtures in this sense were made by us the consent of Japan would not be given. I have pleasure in assuring you, however, that every effort will be made to render the detention of the officers and crew of the Lena, as well as of Captain Günther, who is stated to have been a passenger, as little irksome as is consistent with the President's determination to carry out to the full the neutrality he has proclaimed. I am, etc., FRANCIS B. LOOMIS. Count Cassini to Mr. Hay. [Translation.] IMPERIAL EMBASSY OF RUSSIA, MR. SECRETARY OF STATE: Russia and all the Russians residing abroad will on the 6th/19th December celebrate the name day of His Majesty the Emperor, my august master. Captain Berlinsky, commanding officer of the transport ship Lena, which, as your excellency knows, lies disarmed at San Francisco until the end of the present war, would like to celebrate that day, which all Russians hold so dear, by hoisting on that solemn occasion, and for that day only, the national flag, dressing his ship, and firing the imperial salute. I cherish the hope, Mr. Secretary of State, that the Federal Government will see no objection to yielding to Captain-Berlinsky's request and will thus afford him the opportunity of paying the homage of his respect and veneration to his august sovereign. While transmitting this request of Captain Berlinsky's, and most especially commending it to your customary courtesy, I beg your excellency, etc., CASSINI. Mr. Hay to Count Cassini. No. 252.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 14, 1904. EXCELLENCY: I have received your valued note of the 10th of December, in which you inform me that Captain Berlinsky, commanding officer of the transport ship Lena, which lies disarmed at San Francisco until the end of the present war, would like to celebrate the name day of His Majesty the Emperor, which all Russians hold so dear, by hoisting on that solemn occasion, and for that day only, the national flag, dressing his ship, and firing the imperial salute. I have considered the matter with care and with the earnest desire to meet in all things your excellency's wishes. It seems, however, that the Lena, not being at this time a ship in active commission, lying in a friendly open port, but being held in the Mare Island Navy-Yard completely disarmed, in the custody of the United States until the end of the existing war, her character as a war ship, including the function of saluting and the right to receive salutes, is in abeyance. Under these circumstances the anomaly and inconvenience of firing the suggested salute in an American navy-yard without being competent to salute the American flag and without being entitled to a salute in return, lead me to the conclusion that it is not practicable to acquiesce in that feature of Captain Berlinsky's programme. While regretting this decision touching the salute, it affords me much pleasure to say that as to the display of the national standard and dressing the ship no inconvenience is seen in the appropriate commemoration of the name day of his Imperial Majesty on board the Lena in all suitable ways consistent with the present status of the vessel. We have so informed the American admiral on that station. I beg, etc., JOHN HAY. DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT OF JEWS, AMERICAN CITIZENS, No. 127.] IN RUSSIA. Mr. Hay to Mr. McCormick. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, July 1, 1904. SIR: On the 21st of April last the House of Representatives of the United States adopted a resolution in the following words: Resolved, That the President be requested to renew negotiations with the governments of countries where discrimination is made between American citizens on the ground of religious faith or belief to secure by treaty or otherwise uniformity of treatment and protection to American citizens holding passports duly issued by the authorities of the United States, in order that all American citizens shall have equal freedom of travel and sojourn in those countries, without regard to race, creed, or religious faith. The subject to which this resolution relates has heretofore been the occasion of friendly but sincerely earnest representations to the Russian Government on the part of that of the United States. The instructions on file in your office, and the correspondence had by your predecessors with the Imperial foreign office leave no doubt as to the feeling of the Government of the United States in regard to what it has constantly believed to be a needlessly repressive treatment of many of the most reputable and honored citizens of the United States. Similar views have been expressed, by my predecessors as well as by myself, in conferences with the representatives of Russia at this capital. That these friendly representations have not hitherto produced the results so befitting the close intimacy of the relations of the two countries for more than a century and so much in harmony with their traditional amity and mutual regard is not, in the President's judgment, ground for relaxing endeavors to bring about a better understanding, if only on the score of expediency and reciprocal convenience. I have therefore to instruct you to inform Count Lamsdorff that the text of the foregoing resolution has been sent to you for your |