Mr. Bayard to Mr. Francis.
Washington, March 9, 1885.
Sir: Your No. 53, of the 5th ultimo, relative to the arrest at Krakau, on the 23d of October last, of Louis Feinknopf, an American citizen, charged with owing military service to the Austro-Hungarian Government, has been received.
The arrest took place in October last, but Mr. Feinknopf’s release was not ordered prior to the latter part of January. On the 22d of [Page 17] that month you were informed by a note from the foreign office that the imperial and royal ministry of defense had decided—
That Louis Feinknopf, of Krakau, assigned to the 13th Regiment of Infantry, Graf Huyn, on the 23d October, 1884, be discharged from the military service by virtue of articles 1 and 2 of the treaty of September 20, 1870, it having been authentically ascertained that Feinknopf was naturalized in the United States in 1882, and is therefore by treaty stipulation not subject to military duty in this country.
Between the date of your first representations in this case at the foreign office and the date of the order for release, there elapsed a period of some three months, during which, notwithstanding all your exertions, little was effected in the case but postponement and delay, and you observe as follows:
It has occurred to me that referring to this case, as an example, it might be expedient for the Department, in the interest of American citizenship, to remind the Government of Austria-Hungary that such delay and wrongful proceedings as have characterized this case are inadmissible and afford reasons for serious protest.
In view of your persistent presentation of the case and exhibition of the papers proving Mr. Feinknopf’s United States citizenship on various occasions, the long procrastination of the authorities in the premises appears to this Department hardly consistent with the traditional amity which has existed between the two Governments.
It is thought, however, not unlikely that His Imperial and Royal Majesty’s Government will be willing to acknowledge the fact of unwarranted delay, in some quarter, of the course of justice, if the occasion for such an acknowledgment should naturally arise, and evince a disposition to make some reasonable reparation for Mr. Feinknopf’s benefit.
You will profit by an early appropriate occasion to verbally make known this view in the most judicious terms possible.
I am, &c.,