No.71.
Mr. E. B. Washburne to M. Fish.
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The greater part of the German population has left the city.
This legation has visaed passports and given safe-conducts for very nearly thirty thousand persons, subjects of the North German Confederation, expelled from France. We have given railroad tickets to the Prussian frontier for eight thousand of these people, as well as small amounts of money to a much smaller number. From this statement you can form somewhat of an estimate of the amount of labor we have performed for the last few weeks, and the extra force I have had to employ to accomplish it. I shall, however, have the honor of writing you more fully on this subject at a future time.
My time is now a good deal taken up in looking after Germans who have been arrested and thrown into prison. The number is very great. My applications are promptly attended to, and thus far every man has been released, for whom I have applied.
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