Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, 1894, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress, December 3, 1894
Mr. Gresham to Mr. Dun.
Washington , June 25, 1894 .
Sir: I inclose herewith for your information, in connection with your No. 48, of December 23, 1893, and the Department’s No. 47, of February 19 last, copy of a dispatch, No. 88, of the 5th ultimo, from the consul of the United States at Nagasaki, and of the Department’s reply, No. 28, of the 22d instant, in relation to the case of George W. Lake.
I am, etc.,
Mr. Abercrombie to Mr. Uhl.
Nagasaki, Japan , May 5, 1894 . (Received June 1.)
Sir: I have the honor to make the following further report in relation to the case of George W. Lake:
Previous to the receipt of instruction No. 25, of February 16, Lake; consented to leave Japan and sailed for Shanghai on March 25. Upon learning in Shanghai of decision of the Department in regard to his redeportation, he made application to the governor, through me, for permission to return to Japan. A copy of the governor’s reply denying his request is herewith inclosed (marked No. 1). Notwithstanding this, Lake returned to Nagasaki on April 9. In an interview with the governor of Nagasaki Ken, he informed me that Lake would be again deported on receipt of instructions from his Government at Tokyo in regard to the payment of Lake’s passage money, as he refused to pay it himself.
I immediately sent for Mr. Lake and informed him that he would be forcibly deported by the Japanese authorities, and advised him to leave voluntarily without causing any further trouble. This he consented to do, and left Nagasaki on the Empress of China on April 16, ostensibly for America. His conduct after arriving at Yokohama and the action [Page 388] of the Japanese authorities are described in the Japan Daily Advertiser of April 21, 1894 (marked inclosure No. 2).
On May 1 the governor of Nagasaki Ken informed me that a telegram had been received by the chief of police notifying him of Lake’s departure from Yokohama to Shanghai. As the steamer would stop at Nagasaki, and there being little doubt that Lake would again attempt to land here, a sufficient force of police would be detailed to watch the steamer to prevent his landing. In this way Lake may continue to annoy and harass the Japanese authorities indefinitely.
The character of Mr. Lake has been, I think, well shown in the history of his case already furnished to the Department of State. In a hypothetical case of Lake committing some crime while being deported by the Japanese, he being an American citizen under my jurisdiction, would be brought to this consular court for trial, and, if convicted, would the Japanese have a right to demand his delivery to them for deportation?
I have the honor to request the fullest instructions covering, if possible, the complications which may arise in this anomalous case.
I have, etc.,
Governor Ohomori to Mr. Abercrombie.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated the 9th instant, inclosing a petition of Mr. George W. Lake, an American citizen, you received from Mr. F. P. Catterall, solicitor, in Shanghai.
I beg to request in reply that you will be so kind as to advise the petitioner that as the said Mr. George W. Lake was deported from Japan before under article 7 of the treaty between Japan and the United States, as informed you in my dispatch dated the 14th February, 1893, and in accordance with the instructions I received from my Government, I am prevented from allowing him to reside in Japan.
I have, etc.,
Governor of Nagasaki Ken.
the case of mr. g. w. lake.
A considerable amount of excitement was caused on board the C. P. steamer Empress of China yesterday in connection with Mr. G. W. Lake, a passenger on board, who was recently redeported from Nagasaki. Without going into the particulars of the original case, it appears that Mr. Lake was deported from Japan in January, 1871, upon what he considered illegal grounds. He returned to Nagasaki in December last, and soon afterwards action was entered for his redeportation, which resulted in his imprisonment for two months or so and his departure from Nagasaki to Shanghai, whence he came by the C. P. steamer Empress of China to Yokohama. Upon the arrival of the Empress boat in this port on the 19th the Japanese police took every step possible to prevent the landing of Mr. Lake. Steam launches and boats with officers of all ranks, from inspectors downward, surrounded the steamer, while other police officers in plain clothes boarded the vessel to keep a watch on the deportee. Capt. Archibald, of the Empress of China, was in a bit of a quandary as to what to do with his passenger, who was only booked to Yokohama, and applied to the British consul for assistance, with the result that instructions were given to the consular constable to go off to the steamer before her departure and see that Mr. Lake, as a passenger on a British steamer to Yokohama, was allowed to leave the vessel.
We understand that if opposition to this course was displayed by the Japanese police or others, the constable was empowered to call upon the captain of the Empress for any assistance required. The Empress of China was over an hour late in [Page 389] getting away, and when the C. P. Company’s steam launch ran alongside of the steamer just outside the breakwaters about 1 p.m. yesterday to take off the visitors from ashore, two or three launches and boats with police officers and constables on board surrounded the gangway of the vessel. Just before the Empress boat left the harbor the Japanese authorities, through an officer on board, offered to pay the passage of Mr. Lake to Vancouver, but the offer was refused by Mr. Lake as he was not prepared for a trip to the other side. The first to leave the steamer after she was outside the harbor, to board the C. P. Company’s tender Spindrift, were Mr. Lake and the British consular constable, Mr. Kircher, and no opposition was offered by the Japanese police, some of whom were on board the steamer in private clothes, while a strong detachment were in steam launches alongside. The latter followed the Spindrift to the English Hatoba, where Mr. Lake, at the invitation of Mr. Morse, of the C. P. Company, elected to stay on board the tender for the time. The landing place at the Hatoba was lined with police, in addition to the party which landed from the launches and boats, including Inspector Kawada and other officers in plain clothes.
After landing the other passengers the Spindrift left the landing stage for her anchorage off the Hatoba, with Mr. Lake on board. Later in the afternoon, it appears, fresh instructions were issued to the police from the Kencho to the effect that Mr. Lake was to be permitted to land, but was to be arrested and detained at the police station, and at the same time a note from Mr. Mitsuhashi, secretary of the Kencho, was received by Messrs. Frazar & Co. to the effect that if they harbored Mr. Lake on board their launch they did so at their risk. About 6 o’clock Mr. Pope, who is in charge of the C. P. Company’s launch Spindrift, went on board and acquainted Mr. Lake with the position of affairs, and after packing up his baggage that gentleman landed in a sampan at the Hatoba, where he was received by Mr. Inspector Kawada and some other police officers and conducted to the settlement station, arrangements being made for his detention there pending further instructions.—(Japan Daily Advertiser, 21st April.)
mr. lake still troublesome—he declines to be deported.
When we made inquiries before going to press last night, Mr. G. W. Lake was making himself as comfortable as possible on the C. P. R. steam launch Spindrift. Shortly afterwards, as the result of communications between the Kencho and the C. P. R. agents, he went ashore in a sampan and immediately on landing was taken charge of by the police. He spent the night in the settlement police station. This morning his passage was booked to San Francisco in the City of Bio de Janeiro. Lake asserts that the passage was booked by the police with his own money. Wherever the money came from, his passage was booked, and he was taken on board by the police; but the difficulties did not end here.
When the arrest was removed Lake refused to go to San Francisco, and the police had no option but to again take him in charge. This they did, and on landing he was again escorted to the settlement police station. There, for the present, he remains, and so far as we can see he is likely to remain unless he consents to leave the country or the police confess themselves beaten. That he is under arrest is beyond question. The police decline to allow him to be interviewed, and Inspector Kawada informed representatives of the press this afternoon that he could give no information as to the intention of the authorities. The reporters next visited the police department in Honcho-dori, but were there informed that the chief of police was engaged at the English hatoba. They accordingly repaired to the hatoba, but the chief of police could not be found.—(Japan Gazette, 21st April.)
Mr. Uhl to Mr. Abercrombie.
Washington , June 22, 1894 .
Sir: I have received your dispatch No. 88, of the 5th ultimo, in further relation to the case of George W. Lake, from which it appears that, having quitted Nagasaki under the Japanese order of deportation on April 16, he had subsequently taken passage from Yokohama for Shanghai, and it was thought he might attempt to land at Nagasaki when the steamer touched at that place on the way. In view of this [Page 390] you suggest the hypothetical case of Lake committing some crime while being deported by the Japanese, and ask whether, in the event of his being convicted thereof in the consular court, the Japanese authorities would have a right to demand his delivery to them for deportation.
While it is not the Department’s custom to deal with hypothetical cases, the antecedents of Lake, his apparent disposition to defy the authority of the Japanese in his regard, and the difficulty and delay you might find in communicating with the Department should a question arise, seem to warrant some general observations supplementing Mr. Strobel’s instruction Ho. 25, of February 16, 1894.
An American citizen falling under the inhibitions of Article vii of the treaty of 1858 loses the treaty right of sojourn in Japan, but he loses nothing else. All other rights of American citizenship remain intact, and with them all its obligations, including subjection to consular jurisdiction for any new offense or misdemeanor he may thereafter commit in Japan. Mere defiance of or resistance to a Japanese order of deportation would not be such a triable offense, unless, indeed, he should commit some violently criminal act, which is hardly to be anticipated. In such a case expulsion could only take place after punishment for the offense had been imposed and completed. This is not expressly declared in the treaty, but it must be so, otherwise the crime, although duly ascertained by trial, might go unpunished, since deportation can in no case be regarded as a punishment for the offense, but is merely an administrative act which is left by the treaty to the discretion of the Japanese authorities.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary.