Mr. Sherman to Mr. Uhl.
Washington, May 3, 1897.
Sir: Your dispatches, Nos. 233 and 241, of the respective dates of January 8 and 11 last, communicated the result of inquiries made by you concerning a publication in a local newspaper touching the reported issuance by the “Regierungs-Präsident,” at Potsdam, of an order limiting the sojourn in his district of returning naturalized American citizens of German origin. It then appeared that the regulations which had been issued by the Prussian Government in this regard were not intended to be made public and that they contained nothing more than a declaration of the policy which has frequently been indicated in the correspondence between the embassy and the foreign office.
Within a few days past another press notice, apparently based on telegraphic intelligence, has circulated, reading as follows:
The Prussian minister of the interior has issued a new decree, permitting only a brief stay here of any German naturalized in America who returns to this country. They were formerly allowed to remain here permanently, provided no questions of military dereliction on their part were involved. The liberal press points out that this decree amounts to a nullification of the treaty stipulations of 1868, whereby the permanent return of naturalized German-Americans was specially guaranteed. The liberal leaders, Herren Richter and Ricken, and others, will question the Government on the subject in the Reichstag, and that body will thoroughly discuss the decree.
This notice appears to have been recently current in the German papers, for it is reported in a dispatch from the United States consul at Annaberg, dated April 13 last, of which a copy is appended for your information.
These several statements may simply reproduce the publication of November last, to which you have heretofore referred, but there is nothing to indicate that they may not relate to some new and formal notification. However this may be, it has naturally attracted attention, and the Department has had several inquiries on the subject.
The notoriety attaching to the reported circular, the reference thereto in widely separated districts of Germany, and the foreshadowed discussion of the subject in the Imperial Parliament, coupled with the virtual admission of the foreign office that something of the kind had in fact been issued by the Prussian Government, although not intended for publicity, suggests that the text of such order may now be known or may not now be inaccessible to you. If a copy can be procured the Department would like to have it, as it may afford a convenient summary of the views of the Prussian Government on a subject which has occasioned extensive correspondence between the two countries for many years past.
In this relation I send, for your more convenient information, copy of a dispatch1 from Mr. Louis Stern, the United States commercial agent at Bamberg, reporting the adverse verdict of a lower court of Bavaria, fining the defendant Hirnheimer 200 marks for imputed evasion of military service, and the reversal of that judgment by the imperial supreme court at Leipsic on appeal.
Respectfully, yours,
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