No. 620.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Curry.
Department
of State
Washington,
May 31, 1887.
No. 198.]
Sir: I transmit a copy of a dispatch from our
consul-general at Havana, reporting that whenever any discharged or
destitute American sailors are sent home to the United States in American
vessels by that consulate-general (in accordance with art. 16, par. 271,
Consular Regulations), he is compelled by the local police to obtain, first,
the visa of the
[Page 996]
civil governor of
the province to his consular certificate before the consignees of said
American vessels will issue passage tickets to his office for the American
seamen concerned, and furnishing a statement of such consignees, by which it
appears that they act in obedience to Cuban authorities.
This report illustrates the exceptional and vexatious character of the Cuban
passport regulations. By general maritime law, and particularly by the
statutes of the United States, the discharge of seamen is under the direct
control of the Government of the country under whose flag they ship, and its
certificate, duly issued, is the highest evidence of their status as
American seamen. To claim that, in addition to such certificate, the seamen
must also present a national passport, is an anomalous attempt to assimilate
his condition to that of a voluntary traveler. Moreover, in the case of a
seaman not a citizen of the United States, but discharged from an American
vessel, this rule would seem to require that he should be furnished not only
with the lawful certificate of discharge as an American seaman, but also
with a passport issued by the authority of the nation of which he is a
subject.
The point to be emphasized is that a discharged American seamen in a foreign
port is under the direct charge of the Government of the United States,
which assumes the duty of sending him home to the United States. This duty
is performed wholly independently of the citizenship of the seaman.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 198.]
Mr. Williams to Mr.
Porter.
United
States Consulate-General,
Havana, May 21, 1887.
(Received May 27.)
No. 640.]
Sir: I beg to ask the special attention of the
Department to the fact that whenever any discharged or destitute
American sailors are sent home to the United States in American vessels
by this consulate-general in accordance with article 16, paragraph 271,
of the “Consular Regulations,” I am compelled by the local police to
obtain first the visa of the civil governor of the province to my
consular certificate before the consignees of said American vessel will
issue passage tickets to this office for said American seamen.
In further explanation and confirmation of this complaint, I accompany
herewith the copy of a letter addressed by me on the 21st of March last
to Messrs. Hidalgo & Co., agents in this city of the “Alexandre” and
“Ward” lines of American steamers plying between New York and Havana,
together with copy of their answer, dated the 22d of the same month,
giving the reasons for their refusal to issue passage tickets to this
office for American seamen on board American vessels bound to the United
States without the previous presentation of a passport or a consular
certificate visaed by the civil government.
In soliciting the honorable Secretary of State to be pleased to draw the
attention of the Spanish minister at Washington to the subject, with the
view of seeking from the Madrid Government the abolition of this
requirement of the local police, I beg to remark that as far as my
knowledge goes this is the only port in the world where such an exaction
is made of a foreign consul, his certificate of the discharge or of the
relief of a sailor being everywhere, with the exception of Havana,
sufficient to insure the admission of such seamen on board, the vessels
in which the consul may have secured passage for them. Certainly the
authorities of New York and New Orleans, Key West and Savannah, the
ports of the United States most frequented by Spanish vessels, never
interpose obstacles for the departure of Spanish seamen returned to
Spanish ports by the respective Spanish consular officers, and a
reciprocal treatment requires that the Havana civil government should
extend an equal privilege to American seamen.
I am, etc.,
Ramon O. Williams,
Consul-General.
[Page 997]
[Inclosure 1 to inclosure in No.
198.]
Mr. Williams to
Messrs. Hidalgo & Co.
Consulate-General of the United States,
Havana, March 21, 1887.
Gentlemen: I have noticed that in every
instance that this consulate-general.has had the occasion to afford
transportation to the United States, by one of the American steam-ships
that come to your consignment, to a seaman discharged from an American
vessel, or to a seaman who may come upon the consulate for relief, which
transportation is given to them in accordance with the laws of the
United States making it the duty of the consul to send such seamen home,
as well as of American vessels to take them, that you have refused to
allow the seamen to take passage upon the steamer until he is provided
with a passport issued by the civil government, or has the passage
certificate issued by the consulate visaed at the office of the civil
governor to serve as a passport.
Regarding this refusal on your part to allow the consul-general to
perform a duty imposed upon him by the law of the United States,
applying to the cases of discharged and destitute seamen, as well as to
the obligation of American vessels to receive them for transportation, I
would respectfully ask you to be pleased to inform me upon what grounds
you base your action in the premises.
I am, etc.,
Ramon O. Williams,
Consul-General.
[Inclosure 2 to inclosure in No.
198.]
Messrs. Hidalgo & Co.
to Mr. Williams.
Sir: In answer to your valued communication of
the 21st instant, we beg to say that we have often been warned by the
inspector of police for the bay not to issue any tickets of passage
without a passport or a consular certificate duly visaed by the civil
government, unless we were willing by so doing to expose the parties
holding such tickets to be withdrawn from on board the ship and
ourselves to be fined.
This is what we have to state in reference to the object of your inquiry,
and beg to subscribe ourselves, sir, very respectfully, etc.,
Hidalgo & Co.
