No. 14.
Baron Schaeffer to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Sir: Mr. Schamberg, the imperial-royal Austro-Hungarian consul in Pittsburgh, hoisted on the 18th instant our national flag over the door of the consulate, in honor of the anniversary of the birthday of His Majesty the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. The chief of the police in the above city, Mr. Braun, peremptorily ordered our consul to take the flag down, by referring to local regulations which forbid the hanging out of swinging signals as street obstructions.
Mr. Schamberg, in virtue of our treaty right of 1870 (Article IV), correctly refused to obey the orders, and the flag remained floating till sunset.
As the facts came to my notice through newspaper reports, I was not able to exercise any official interference before I got the official consular report. But nevertheless I called officieusement upon the First Assistant Secretary, Mr. Davis, on the 21st August, who, as usual, received me very courteously and disapproved without hesitation the conduct of the chief of the police on account of his ignorance, but did not think it necessary to write privately to the governor of the State, being sure that the matter, while we are speaking about it, will have been satisfactorily settled.
Now in possession of an official consular report which states that the flag remained untouched, I should have liked to attribute the conduct of the chief of the police to simple ignorance and to drop the whole affair; but the further proceedings of this officer urge me to enter protest against them. Having been once informed of our treaty right, he should have frankly declared his ignorance of international courtesy [Page 19] and to be excused of the mistake he made. Contrary to that, he went so far as to sue the consul for infringement of the local laws by disobeying his orders, and to demand even the arrest of this gentleman.
The excuse made, as I was told, by the said chief, “that if he had known the hoisting of the flag to be in honor of our Emperor’s birthday he would have left unnoticed the matter,” is really childish.
We stood upon our treaty right, and it is no concern for the local police to examine for what purpose we think proper to hoist our flag.
You will, therefore, be so kind, as a higher authority, to cause the chief of the police in Pittsburgh, having acted officially, to be also officially and severely reprimanded, and to instruct the local authorities with respect of the treaty rights and international courtesy; which lesson would, as it seems, do them much good and avoid in future disagreeable troubles.
In brief, considering the most friendly relations which happily exist between the two great powers, I venture to ask of the American Government nothing more than what you would have asked of ours if the Austrian police had acted in the same way in a similar case against an American consul in our country.
Accept, &c.,