Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Berlin, November 25, 1898.
Sir: Referring to previous correspondence, I have the honor to inform you that I have to-day received a letter from Professor Dr. Klein, of Göttingen, in which he says that the expert report of the matter of the readmission to do business in Prussia of the New York Life Insurance Company is expected to be put into the hands of the Prussian minister of the interior on the 28th instant, and that I have communicated this information to Mr. G. W. Perkins, the second vice-president of the company in question.
I have also to inform you that the representatives of the Mutual Life Insurance Company have been put in communication with Dr. Klein, for the purpose of presenting their case to him, in response to a request made by me at the foreign office.
All those who have seen Dr. Klein are convinced of his fairness, and the New York people are very sanguine as to the nature of his report in regard to their company. About its effect upon the governmental authorities, however, they are more in doubt, and I understand that a suggestion has been made to them informally that the matter not be pressed, as it was proposed to introduce the long-expected imperial insurance bill at the next session of the Reichstag. The companies are properly not willing to let the matter rest, the provisions of the bill not having been as yet made public, and as there is some reason for supposing that certain members of the Prussian Government entertain hope that the whole question of insurance (life, fire, etc.) will be taken over by the Imperial Government and that a governmental monopoly will be made. Consequently so long as the terms of the proposed bill, to which frequent reference is made by the press, are not published one can not help feeling that there may be surprises in it.
I have, etc.,