[Inclosure in No.
34.—Translation.]
Mr. v. Philipsborn
to Mr. Taylor
.
Foreign
Office, Berlin
,
July 18, 1878.
Sir: The undersigned has the honor, referring
to his communication of the 25th of May last, to inform the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of
America, Mr. Bayard Taylor, that the investigation instituted in the
matter of the expulsion of Julius Bäumer from Germany by the authorities
at Münster has now been concluded.
This investigation has resulted in showing that the facts of the case are
substantially in accord with the statements contained in the dispatch of
the Department of State at Washington of April 30 last, a copy of which
was inclosed in the esteemed note of Mr. Bayard Taylor of the 18th of
May following, and on this basis the following exposition of the case is
presented:
Bäumer, who by descent was of Prussian nationality, sought and obtained
his discharge from this nationality in the year 1868, at the age of 21
years, thereupon emigrated to America, and, after having acquired
American citizenship, returned in September, 1877, to Münster, for the
purpose of sojourning there with his parents.
After he had remained there for several months, the royal government at
Münster, acting on the assumption that it was not Bäumer’s intention to
return to North America, but simply to evade the performance of German
military duty, caused him to be notified, under date of December 12,
1877, that he must either leave the territory of the German Empire
within eight days, or, in case he should remain in Germany, perform his
military duty. This notification caused Bäumer to address to the royal
minister of the interior, on the 20th of the same month, a request that
he might be permitted to make a longer stay at Münster, as, owing to
want of means, he should not be able to enter upon his return journey to
America until February of the following year.
This request, which contained no complaint whatever as to the decree of
expulsion itself, was responded, to by the royal minister of the
interior at once, and in such manner that primarily the expulsion was
suspended for the time being, and permission accorded Bäumer to reside
at Münster until the middle of February next.
Bäumer, informed of this by the police authorities of Münster, declared,
however, that he did not purpose availing himself of the respite granted
him, but should start on his return journey to America on the 31st of
January. In accordance with this [Page 229] declaration, he did leave Münster for America on the last-mentioned
day, without the use of measures of force or even the existence of a
necessity for the use of such.
Bäumer did not, it is thus seen, make the measure of expulsion adopted
against him the occasion of any complaint whatever, either to the royal
superior president of the province of Westphalia, eventually competent
in the first instance for such a complaint, or to the royal minister of
the interior, and the only request of any nature made by Bäumer in the
course of the whole affair at once met with full consideration.
As regards the admissibility of this measure of expulsion itself, the
royal government at Münster adopted it in the exercise of its
constitutional competence.
Every sovereign state is entitled, under international law principles,
from actuating motives of internal state police or state policy, to
refuse to foreigners the privilege of sojourn. A renunciation of this
right is, as has been pointed out by this government on former
occasions, nowhere contained in the treaty of February 22, 1868. This
right may therefore be exercised without detriment to that treaty, as
well by North America against every German, and by this government
against every North American citizen, in the same manner as against
persons of all other foreign nationalities, in case there exist for its
exercise a particular motive of the character above indicated.
To judge of the sufficiency of these motives in a concrete case
appertains to the constitutionally-appointed organs for such purpose of
the particular state engaged in the exercise of this its sovereign state
right. This state organ is in Prussia, in the first instance, the
particular royal government, or, as may be, the Lannddrostei, and was
therefore in the present case of the royal government at Münster.
The decision of this latter tribunal was especially influenced by the
circumstance that in the city of Münster particularly, for some years
past, a not inconsiderable number of persons liable to military duty who
had been discharged from German and had acquired a foreign and
particularly also a North American nationality, had returned to reside
permanently. In view of the fact that this false state of things, which
had become a general annoyance and a danger to public order, required
there a more severe application of the right of expulsion, the said
government saw particular reasons for a non-indulgent course toward
Bäumer also, and consequently decreed his expulsion. It is to be
regretted that Bäumer did not complain of this expulsion either to the
appropriate internal authorities or to the imperial government, through
the mediation of the envoy of the United States. The undersigned does
not hesitate to declare that, on the basis of such a complaint, the
decree in question of the royal government at Münster, although its
legality is beyond question, would have been canceled, in view of the
circumstance that in the decision of the case by the higher authorities
the existing considerations of a local nature would have been
subordinated to the general points of view involved. And in view of this
circumstance the royal minister of the interior gladly holds himself in
readiness to direct that Bäumer, in case he should return to Prussia, be
permitted to sojourn for the period of two years on Prussian territory,
in so far as other and different valid reasons for the prohibition of
such sojourn than those indicated by the royal government at Münster are
not made to appear.
Moreover, the undersigned will take care that in future, in the treatment
of similar cases, the general points of view established by the imperial
government shall also receive full consideration at the hands of the
local authorities.
On the other hand, the undersigned cannot recognize an obligation to
replace the damages incurred, as alleged by Bäumer, through the action
of the royal government at Münster, for this reason, if for no other,
that this tribunal, as already shown, acted within its competence, not
exceeding its powers. A sufficient foundation for such a claim would
also be wanting, for the reason that Bäumer, at as early a period as
November, 1877, before there was any question of his expulsion, had
declared in a communication to the royal government at Münster that it
was his intention, as he had a business of his own in Chicago, to visit
his parents until the spring only; and also for the reason that he
voluntarily made no use of the permission accorded him for a further
sojourn until the middle of February following.
The undersigned also avails himself of this occasion to renew,
&c.
