Mr. Bayard to Mr.
Olney.
Embassy
of the United States,
London, August 31, 1895
(Received Sept. 7.)
No. 505.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
instructions of the State Department, No. 651, of April 5, and No. 671,
of April 19, with their respective inclosures, relating to the treatment
of men employed in the United States to take care of cattle shipped in
steamers to European ports, where upon arrival the men landed are left
in a destitude condition and unprovided with transportation back to
their homes in the United States.
The subject has received the prompt and full consideration of this
embassy, and I now transmit, inclosed herewith, a copy of a note, dated
May 15 last, addressed by me to the foreign office, and the reply
thereto of the Marquis of Salisbury, dated July 15.
I also inclose (the original) a letter from the vice-consul-general at
this city, addressed to Mr. Roosevelt, the secretary of this embassy, by
which it will be perceived that the attention of the representatives of
the principal steamship lines between London and the United States
having been called to the matter, an informal agreement was made, which
has so far sufficed to check the evil complained of and has given relief
to the class of persons whose sufferings caused your instructions in
their behalf.
No complaint has since reached this embassy, and it may be considered as
reasonably probable that hereafter the shippers of cattle in ports of
the United States will not be allowed to send care takers out to Europe
with the cattle without arranging for their support and safe return to
the United States.
I would, however, attract the attention of those officials who are
charged with the regulation of the shipment of cattle from the United
States to the closing paragraph of the note of Lord Salisbury and his
suggestions as to the most effectual way of dealing with the threatened
evil, which is an enforcement of conditions upon shippers of cattle in
the United States for European ports by which they shall be compelled to
make provision for the return to their own country of the cattlemen they
employ.
If the present official powers of the Treasury officials vest them with
legal authority to create and enforce regulations of the character thus
suggested, they can apply the remedy, or Congress would no doubt
willingly enact the requisite legislation to protect a thrifty and
humble class from the consequences of the commercial greed from which
they have suffered in the past.
I have, etc.,
[Page 734]
[Inclosure 1 in No.
505.]
Mr. Bayard to
Lord Kimberley.
Embassy of the United States,
London, May
15, 1895.
My Lord: Under instructions from my
Government, I have the honor to inclose herewith copies of
correspondence relating to the treatment of men employed to take
care of cattle shipped in British steamers plying between the United
States and European ports.
It is understood that these cattlemen (generally destitute vagrants)
are employed by the owners of the cattle (or their agents), and are
promised a sum of money and a return ticket on their arrival at the
port of delivery of the cattle. At the end of the voyage they are,
however, almost invariably defrauded, in one way or other, of their
money and their return tickets and are turned out of the ship
penniless and left in a strange country, totally without means of
transportation to the United States.
The increasing number of helpless people thus left destitute in
British and other ports, and their pitiable condition, may be said
to have become a public scandal.
As the steamers employed in the conveyance of cattle across the
Atlantic are nearly all under the British flag, and while I am aware
that the fact of the engagement of these men by the shippers and not
by the steamship owners creates a difficulty under the merchant
shipping act in assigning responsibility for the care of the
cattlemen when they come to port, I hope, however, that some remedy
for this grievous evil may be found by Her Majesty’s board of trade,
by a recommendation to the steamship companies that these cattlemen
be engaged by them for the round trip on the same basis as ordinary
ships’ hands instead of by the shippers, as at present, so that the
steamship owners will thus be responsible for their proper payment
and return to the United States.
An alternative remedy could possibly be found in the enforcement here
of a self-protecting construction of British local regulation to
protect the health and safety of their ports from the landing of men
so impoverished, unless provision is made for their temporary
support and reshipment.
I am instructed at the same time to express to your lordship the
request of my Government that the existing laws of the United States
do not prevent or control the shipment of this destitute class of
people by giving them employment as cattlemen to take care of live
stock in British vessels, and their consequent charge upon the
British poor rates when left stranded and penniless in the ports of
the United Kingdom.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No.
505.]
Lord Salisbury
to Mr. Bayard.
Foreign Office,
London, July 15,
1895.
Your Excellency: Her Majesty’s Government
have had under their careful consideration the representations made
in your note of the 15th of May last upon the subject of the
treatment of the men employed
[Page 735]
to take care of cattle shipped on British
steamers plying between the United States and European ports.
Your note suggested that either the steamship companies should be
recommended to engage the men as members of the crew for the round
trip, or that some regulation should be adopted to prevent their
being landed unless provision is made for their temporary support
and reshipment.
With regard to these suggestions I have to observe that there is in
this country no legal power vested in the State to prescribe the
conditions under which cattlemen shall be engaged, or in any way to
interfere with their employment, nor is there any power to regulate
the landing of the men as destitute aliens.
I am informed that both Mr. Roosevelt and the consul-general for the
United States have recently been in personal communication with the
board of trade in regard to this question. The former was understood
to admit that the real difficulty lay in the fact that the United
States consular officers have no power to relieve the men or to send
them home.
Her Majesty’s Government fully appreciate the desire of the United
States Government to protect the interests of their citizens who
find themselves in a state of destitution in a foreign country. If,
however, your excellency would be good enough to bring to the notice
of the board of trade any case in which it can be shown that the
United States cattlemen have suffered through the insufficiency of
arrangements made by the owners of the British vessels in which they
have been conveyed, the board will undertake to make inquiry upon
the subject.
Her Majesty’s Government are disposed to think that, under existing
circumstances, the most effectual way of dealing with what appears
to be a serious evil might be that some control should be exercised
by the United States authorities over the employers of the
cattlemen, who are shippers of cattle at ports of the United States,
and that these persons should be required in every case to provide
for the return to their own country of the cattlemen they employ;
and I have, therefore, to submit this suggestion for the
consideration of the United States Government.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
505.]
Mr. Collins to
Mr. Roosevelt.
Consulate-General of the United States,
London, July 29, 1895.
Sir: The consul-general has laid before me
your letter addressed to him re cattlemen. In reply to the question
therein contained, I beg leave to state that on the 5th day of June,
1895, a meeting was held at the consulate-general, which was
attended by representatives of the principal steamship lines running
from London to the United States of America. The question discussed
was the then existing method of procedure in regard to the payment,
care, etc., of cattlemen coming from the United States, and also the
question of their return to their home in the United States. The
whole matter was thoroughly discussed, and as a result measures
proposed by me for the payment of wages, the care of, and the return
to the United States of cattlemen were agreed to by all the
steamship lines, and have been since lived up to by them.
[Page 736]
I have at the consulate-general the statements in writing from the
Furness Line, from the Johnson Line, from the National Line, from
the Atlantic Transport Line, the Wilson Hill Line, the Allan Line of
steamships, as to their agreement to deal in a fair and equitable
manner with the cattlemen.
As a result (not to go into the details of this matter, which would
entail much time), I may state in conclusion that since the 5th of
June to the present day this consulate-general has not been visited
by any cattlemen save by a stray one on rare occasions. This to me
would indicate that the trouble has been cured by the steamship
companies agreeing to become responsible for the cattlemen, which
agreement was the outcome of the meeting of the 5th of June. I shall
be pleased to forward you copies of the letters of the various
steamship lines, should you wish them and would kindly acquaint me
of your desire to have them.
I am, etc.,
John J. Collins,
Vice and Deputy Consul-General.
