No. 685.
Mr. Fish
to Mr. Blaine.
Berne, April 4, 1881. (Received April 19.)
Sir: On the 1st instant I received a telegram from the Hamburg Steamship Company, announcing that the Suevia would leave New York on Saturday, the 2d instant, probably in the forenoon. I at once telegraphed to Consul Mason to telegraph the cantonal government at Aaran, announcing this fact, and saying that he would be happy to learn that they had taken steps by cable to secure the return of the two prostitutes sent from Böttstein. He has been unable to get any answer from the cantonal government of Argovie.
On the 1st instant I called on the President of the Confederation, but found him absent, and saw the Vice-President, Mr. Bavier, who speaks English fluently. He told me he had received my note, with the evidence, on the evening of the 31st March, and that the next morning he had referred it to Mr. Ruchonnet, the head of the department of commerce and agriculture. I asked him if the proof were not clear. He said “Yes, there is no doubt about it; how did you procure it?” I told him briefly how it had come into our possession. He said that he wished me to see Mr. Ruchonnet about it. I called on the latter immediately (4.45 p.m.), and showed him the telegram from the steamship company, and said that it was greatly to be desired that the women should be returned by the same vessel. He said that unfortunately there was no federal competence to allow them to coerce the commune or cantons, and that the new law on emigration agencies could not go into effect for some time to come. I said that I was well aware of that, but that it was greatly to be desired that those women should return by the Suevia, and that I hoped that the Federal Council would have sufficient influence to cause the government of Argovie to telegraph to New York requesting their return. He said, “You are in a great hurry.” I said that I thought Switzerland and the Swiss emigrants in the United States, as well as our own people, would be in a great hurry to get rid of them when their character became known, and that I thought it would be greatly to the interest of the former to spare no means to secure their return. I called his attention to the fact that there was ample time to permit the Argovie government to cable before the vessel sailed, as it was not yet 11 o’clock a.m. in New York. He said that a telegram would greatly increase the expense of the commune, but he said that he would at once request them to cable.
Since then I have not heard from the Federal Council in reference to the case.
If the women were not returned on the Suevia, and I infer from your silence that they were not, it is not because the canton of Argovie and the Federal Council did not have time to make the request.
The onus of the delay or neglect to make such a request belongs entirely to them. The legation and the consulate at Basle rendered them every facility for so doing.
I have, &c.,