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Mr. Hay to Mr. Hale.

No. 111.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 19, 1904. SIR: I confirm the Department's telegram to you of the 13th in

stant.

I inclose herewith original papers which the Red Star Line, through its counsel, Mr. S. C. Neale, has submitted to the Department. They appear to make out a prima facie showing of discrimination against the Red Star Line in favor of the Cunard Line by the Hungarian authorities, and the Department feels justified in instructing you to use your good offices in behalf of the American interests discriminated against to obtain proper relief for them.

I am, etc.,

Mr. Hay to Mr. Hale.

JOHN HAY.

No. 116.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, October 29, 1904.

SIR: I inclose a copy of a letter from the Secretary of Commerce and Labor in regard to the case of Mrs. Maria Horniak, the wife of a citizen of the United States, who was compelled by an official of the Hungarian Government to forfeit her prepaid passage ticket to this country and to purchase another ticket via the Cunard Line from Fiume, Hungary."

You will take this case up in connection with the several complaints recently brought to the attention of the Department by the International Maritime Company, concerning which an instruction was sent

on the 19th instant.

I am, etc.,

* * *

JOHN HAY.

No. 184.]

Mr. Storer to Mr. Hay.

AMERICAN EMBASSY, Vienna, November 17, 1904.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Department's instruction No. 111, with its inclosures.

The opinion and attitude of the Austro-Hungarian Government, as stated by the minister of foreign affairs on this subject, was reported to the Department by Mr. Hale's No. 178, bearing date of the 18th of October, 1904, the receipt of which has not yet been acknowledged by the Department.

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It would seem that the renewed application to the foreign office of the Austro-Hungarian Government on precisely similar grounds and reasons as has heretofore been made would be fruitless in view of the situation as stated in Mr. Hale's dispatch, referred to above.

I have, etc.,

a Not printed.

BELLAMY STORER.

No. 186.]

Mr. Storer to Mr. Hay.

AMERICAN LEGATION, Vienna, November 29, 1904. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Depart・ment's instruction No. 116, bearing date of October 29, 1904, calling for inquiry into the circumstances under which Mrs. Horniak has made complaint to the Department in regard to her treatment by a Hungarian official at Fiume.

* * *

Notwithstanding the fact that the Department has not yet acknowledged Mr. Hale's dispatch No. 178, bearing date of October 18, 1904, with reference to the complaints of the Red Star Line, and also that sufficient time has not elapsed for reply to my No. 184, bearing date of November 17, 1904, I have deemed it advisable to have another personal interview with the Austro-Hungarian foreign office on this subject.

Mr. de Mérey, the chief assistant secretary, is a Hungarian, and therefore I placed, to-day, the general question again before him instead of Count Goluchowski, pointing out the likelihood that some measures of reprisal might be urged before our Congress at its early meeting next month, as had been the case last spring.

Mr. de Mérey was deeply interested in the question, not only from the standpoint of the foreign office, but also as a Hungarian; and asked me to let him make a full exposition of the difficulties the foreign office had to labor under.

It would appear that immediately on the assumption of office of the Tisza ministry in November, 1903, great energy was displayed in putting into operation in a vigorous and rigorous fashion the general law concerning emigration from Hungary, framed, but not put into execution by its predecessor in office next but one-the ministry of Mr. Koloman de Széll.

Full text of the law originally drafted under Széll in the spring of 1903, of the law modified in certain particulars as put into force, and of the several degrees or orders issued by Count Tisza as minister of the interior, under the provisions of the law to give effect to its operation, were transmitted to the Department at the time.

The new ministry, presided over as it is by a man of immense energy, of broad modern ideas of progress, and great self-reliance, set itself naturally to develop the commercial interests of the only sea port Hungary possesses-Fiume-of which the country is very proud, and to improve which expenditures relatively enormous have been made.

As heretofore described to the Department, the Hungarian Government bound itself to furnish 30,000 emigrants from Fiume to the Cunard Company, and the sense of this obligation was felt from the top to the bottom of the Hungarian officialdom. There is no denial or doubt, Mr. de Mérey gave me to understand, that discrimination against all Atlantic lines other than the Cunard Company for Fiume was intended, and that the same was urged upon and expected from all subordinate officials throughout Hungary.

Soon, however, the chances of commerical and political reprisals both on the part of the navigation companies other than the Cunard and of the Government of the United States became visible.

Keen competition by other shipping lines via Trieste, to which the provincial and local governments of the Austrian provinces interested gave welcome, began to threaten; and the session of our Congress last spring, just at its close, was full of warnings for the Hungarian Government.

This latter felt itself compelled to cancel certain features of its contract with the Cunard Company, including the guaranty of the number of emigrants to be at least 30,000, and the widespread outery against the acts of its officials, emanating from the hostile shipping lines, both through the press of Europe and through the diplomatic representations from the home countries of these rival merchant fleets, compelled the relaxation of the efforts to compel forcibly all emigration to pass through the official channel.

In fact countermanding orders have been issued from the ministry of the interior denouncing and prohibiting any official interference with the route chosen by those intending to emigrate. But, it was added, perhaps not unnaturally, such orders were slower to affect the mind of the under officials, and bring about their hearty and instant obedience, than the original efforts to develop Fiume, to which national pride and popular feeling had given an impulse, apart from official instructions.

Count Tisza has personally urged Mr. de Mérey to send in at once the details of any complaint of the action of any Hungarian officials, and the ministry of the interior will, without the slightest delay, make instant inquiry, hold functionaries to strict measure of account, and see that justice is done.

Here I may interpolate that last week Mr. Strasser, the director of the Red Star Line, called in person at the embassy to bring sundry cases of what is said to have been unjust and tyrannical action of the Hungarian minor authorities as to emigrants intending to go to America via Antwerp and holding tickets for that object.

Mr. Strasser told me that his company had no doubt in the world of the good faith of Count Tisza in seeing the mistakes heretofore made and in trying to remedy them. He knew that orders, as I have described, had been issued by the ministry of the interior. He claimed, however, that up to this time such orders had been of little effect on the subordinate officials, with whom the agents' fee of 18 kronen, paid by the Cunard Company to every person (official or otherwise) who was the means of bringing an emigrant to the vessels of that company at Fiume, was more powerful than the instructions of their own official chiefs.

At the close of this explanation Mr. de Mérey urged me to submit through the foreign office to Count Tisza each and every case of alleged oppressive action or improper interference with the free departure of any one in whom the United States Government had any interest or duty, as it was the request of the Hungarian Government that all such cases be brought to its attention in order to probe them to the bottom.

Accordingly, following your instructions, I shall transmit to the foreign office, for the attention of the Hungarian Government, all cases notified to the embassy either by the Department or the Red Star Line.

I have, etc.,

BELLAMY STORER.

No. 121.]

Mr. Hay to Mr. Storer.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 14, 1904. SIR Referring to the Department's No. 116 of October 29 last, I inclose a copy of a letter from Mr. John Horniak, post-office box 48, Freeland, Pa., setting forth the circumstances under which his wife, Mrs. Maria Horniak, has made complaint in regard to her treatment by a Hungarian official at Fiume and the damages sustained in being compelled to purchase a ticket to the United States by the Cunard Line, notwithstanding the fact that she held a prepaid ticket by the North German Lloyd.a

Supplementary to the instructions already received by the embassy in connection with this and similar cases of complaint, you will transmit a statement of the facts set forth in Mrs. Horniak's case to the foreign office for the attention of the Hungarian Government.

Where American citizens are treated by the authorities as were Mrs. Horniak and others whose cases have been notified to the embassy by either the Department or the Red Star Line, at least restitution of the property taken from them and reimbursement of actual additional expenses should be made to them.

I am, etc.,

JOHN HAY.

Mr. Hay to Mr. Storer.

No. 122.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 14, 1904.

SIR Referring to the instructions of this date in connection with the case of Mrs. John Horniak and similar cases, I inclose a copy of a letter from Thomas Capek, esq., of 300 East Seventy-second street, New York City, submitting the complaint of Mrs. Sophia Vanco (otherwise Wancho) of treatment received at the hands of Hungarian officials, the seizure of her ticket, etc."

You will, in addition to the cases of similar character already transmitted to the foreign office, present Mrs. Vanco's case, with a view to a thorough inquiry into the causes of these complaints and to suitable restitution and reimbursement, as pointed out in the Department's instruction in connection with the case of Mrs. Maria Horniak, above referred to.

I am, etc.,

JOHN HAY.

Mr. Hay to Mr. Storer.

No. 123.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, December 15, 1904.

SIR: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 186, of the 29th ultimo, concerning the complaint of Mrs. Maria Horniak in regard to the seizure of her prepaid ticket and her treatment by Hun

a Not printed.

garian officials and reporting your interview with the under secretary of state on the subject of Hungarian emigration.

The Department is pleased to note the disposition of the AustroHungarian foreign office to promptly investigate the complaints made by American citizens and to see that justice is done in each case. am, etc.,

JOHN HAY.

MEDICAL EXAMINATION OF EMIGRANTS AT PORTS OF

DEPARTURE.

Mr. Adee to Mr. Hale.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, August 19, 1903.

SIR: Under date of the 15th instant the Secretary of Commerce and Labor writes that it is his Department's desire, in its efforts to enforce the act of March 3, last, "to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States," to prevent by every lawful means the immigration into this country of persons afflicted with loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases. This work would be greatly facilitated and the hardship on the steamship lines would be decreased if permission were given, by the principal countries from which emigrants leave for the United States, to this Government to station at the ports of embarkation officers of the United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service to make a medical inspection of all persons intending to emigrate to the United States.

Under these circumstances you may make inquiry of the Government to which you are accredited whether it has any objection to such a course, and the Department would be glad if you would report as soon as possible the answer received by you.

I am, sir, etc.,

ALVEY A. ADEE,
Acting Secretary.

Mr. Hale to Mr. Hay.

No. 156.]

AMERICAN LEGATION,
Vienna, July 19, 1904.

SIR Referring to the Department's unnumbered dispatch of August 19, 1903, instructing that inquiry be made of the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Government whether permission would be granted to the United States Government to station at the ports of embarkation of this Empire officers of the United States Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service to make a medical inspection of all persons intending to emigrate to the United States, and thereby facilitate the enforcement of the immigration act of March 3, 1903, I have the honor to inform you that in reply to my note of September 2 last, the foreign office, in a note of recent date, states that it is not possible, in conformity with the existing regulations governing the practice of medicine in this country, to permit foreign sanitary officers not licensed (in Austria) to make such a medical inspection; but

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