Mr. Grant to Mr.
Blaine.
Legation of
the United States,
Vienna, May 25, 1891.
(Received June 13.)
No. 155.]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.]
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.
[Page 17]
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.,
