Mr. Foster to Mr. Cheney.
Department of State , January 13, 1893 .
Sir: By the Department’s instruction No. 102, of March 1 last, Mr. Washburn was directed to present to the Swiss Government the case of Constance Madeleine His, a young child abducted from the State of New York, and to request her return to the jurisdiction of the United States.
Mr. Washburn, in his dispatch No. 134, of May 10, transmitted the answer of the Federal Council to this request, in which the position was taken that the case was pending in the Swiss courts and that the Executive authority could not intervene.
July 27 Mr. Washburn was instructed to reply thereto, but it is not known here that any further official communication with regard to the matter has been received from the Swiss Government. It is desired that officially or unofficially, as you may judge most prudent, you will continue Mr. Washburn’s efforts and do whatever you properly can in [Page 651] the line of the Department’s previous instructions to secure the return of the child to this country whence she was unlawfully taken.
Whether any further official communication to the Federal Council would be helpful in the sense of those instructions I leave to your discretion. It has been suggested at this Department by counsel in behalf of Mr. His that in taking the child he committed no crime. The Department, however, has official information that an indictment therefor has been found in New York against Mr. His upon the charge of kidnaping. The existence of such an indictment is ordinarily required to be kept secret until the accused can be arrested, but the foregoing information has been given to the Department, for its own use only, in connection with its intervention with the Swiss Government for the return of the child. It would be better that the information should not be used unless necessary. You are authorized, however, to make use of it, if in your judgment it becomes important to do so, in support of the request which this Government has made.
It is understood that Mr. Catlin, consul of the United States at Zurich, or Mrs. His’s resident attorney, Dr. Emil Frey, of Brugg, may be able to give you information regarding the present status of the legal proceedings, should you require it.
You will keep the Department informed of your action in the premises.
I am, etc.,