Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1899

Mr. Herdliska to Mr. Hay.

United States Legation,
Vienna, October 9, 1899.

No. 50.]

Sir: I have the honor to report upon the case of William Trauber as follows:

Pursuant to the Department’s instruction, No. 33, of the 4th of August, 1899, Mr. Harris, in a note dated the 21st of August, 1899, No. 20, a copy of which is respectfully submitted herewith, duly brought to the attention of the Imperial and Royal ministry of foreign affairs the facts and instructions set out therein.

I am now in receipt of a note from the foreign office replying to the representations made to it by Mr. Harris, and beg to respectfully submit my translation of the same herewith.

In this note, Count Welsersheiml, speaking for the Imperial and Royal minister of foreign affairs, declares that—

1. There was no reason why the Imperial and Royal consul at Braila should place the Austrian visa demanded by Trauber upon the American passport produced by him because of the fact that the Imperial and Royal regulations require this in the cases of Russian and Turkish passports only, and this because of reciprocal agreements.

2. About the time Trauber presented his passport to be visaed a forgery had been committed upon the Austrian banking house of Jeschels & Co., and the Imperial and Royal consulate at Braila, having taken the said banking house under its protection, was assisting in ferreting out the perpetrator, among other ways by refusing to vise the passports of suspicious foreigners.

3. When Trauber presented his passport to be viséed, the fact that it had been issued at Athens and not at Bucharest, where Trauber is said to have resided for more than seven years past, and the fact that the said passport had the printed word “legation” crossed out and the word “consulate” written over it—a procedure decidedly neither usual nor regular—caused the consul to become suspicious of Trauber, and he consequently refused to visé the passport.

4. The consul not only considered himself justified, but found it his duty, in the interests of the injured banking firm, to make known to the head of the said firm, Mr. Chatiner, and an Austrian subject, his suspicions with regard to Trauber’s passport, but that the consul can not be held responsible if the said Chatiner thought it expedient to make known to Trauber what had been communicated to him in the strictest confidence.

5. Trauber’s allegation that the consul brought a charge against him before the public prosecution is declared by this Imperial and Royal functionary as not being in accordance with the actual facts.

6. The further statements made by Trauber, according to which the consul is alleged to have called the passport in question a falsification, to have screamed at him and made use of expressions such as swindler, etc., and to have threatened to tear up the passport, are also declared not to be in accordance with the actual facts.

7. On Trauber appearing for the second time on the 3d of July last with the renewed request to have his passport viséed, the consul repeated to him what he had already told him on his first visit, viz, that the viséing of his passport was not necessary and that he could travel with it throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire without submitting it to the said formula; nevertheless, if Trauber considered the viséing so very desirable, he need only to send the passport for this purpose first to the American consul and then to the Imperial and Royal consular authority at Bucharest, which might easily be effected through the post.

8. On Trauber’s insisting, however, in peremptory tones, on having the viséing carried out on the part of the Imperial and Royal consulate at Braila, the consul requested him, in decided but in no wise insolent terms, to desist and to leave the office.

Finally, Count Welsersheimb declares that according to the above statements there can be no question of disrespect having been shown to the passport of the naturalized American citizen William Trauber on the part of the Imperial and Royal consul at Braila, who, as aforesaid, gave him, the claimant, implicitly to understand that he could travel through the Monarchy with his American passport without undergoing the formula of viséing. If, therefore, the consul, taking the unusual circumstances of the case into consideration, refused to comply with William Trauber’s obstinate demands to visé his passport, which he, the consul, did not consider himself morally obliged to do, he can not, under any pretext whatosever, be charged with a violation of his official duties either in one or the other direction.

I have the honor to submit herewith also the passport in question, which Mr. Trauber, upon the occasion of a personal visit to this legation, in the interest of his case, left with me. I beg that the Department will kindly return the same when finished with it, in order that this legation may again return it to Mr. Trauber.

Awaiting any further instructions you may be pleased to give with reference to this case,

I have, etc.,

Charles V. Herdliska,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.

[Inclosure!.]

Mr. Harris to Count Goluchowski.

United States Legation,
Vienna, August 21, 1899.

No. 20.]

Your Excellency: I have the honor to inclose to your excellency herewith a copy of a dispatch to the Department of State by the consul of the United States of America at Athens, Greece, of date the 17th of July, 1899, relative to the conduct of the Imperial and Royal consul of Austria-Hungary, at Braila, Roumania, in relation to a passport issued by the consul of the United States at Athens in the absence from Athens of the minister of the United States of America.

The facts are sufficiently narrated in this dispatch to show the action of the Imperial and Royal consul who, it is alleged, declared the passport issued by the United States consul, Mr. Daniel McGinley, to be a forgery and the holder thereof, Mr. William Trauber, a swindler. He intimates that the Imperial and Royal consul threatened to tear up his passport as being false.

I have the honor to submit to your excellency that the reported action of the Imperial and Royal consul is of such an extraordinary character as to need no argument in remonstrance, and it is believed that it is only necessary to submit the facts in order to convince the Imperial and Royal Government that the Imperial and Royal consul gravely exceeded his powers in declaring a regularly issued passport of the Government of the United States of America to be a forgery.

In this connection I beg to refer your excellency to the esteemed note of the Imperial and Royal ministry of foreign affairs, No. 28523–F of date the 18th of August, 1894, to this legation, relative to the validity of passports, in which one of the points ceded by the Imperial and Royal Government is summed up as follows:

It is conceded that the passport of the citizen of either government, native or naturalized, not bearing upon its face the insignia of its own invalidity, can not be called in question by the municipal district and inferior officers of the government, but that such paper is prima facie evidence of the facts therein stated and must be respected as such. If the subordinate officers of the government have suspicions of the fraudulent character of the paper presented, they may report the fraud or irregularity alleged to same tribunal, if any, having competent authority under the rules of international law to determine the same.

Under instructions from the Department of State, I have the honor to bring these facts to the attention of the Imperial and Royal Government, in order that it may issue such instructions to the Imperial and Royal consul at Braila as will prevent a recurrence of such action on his part.

I avail myself, etc.,

Addison C. Harris,
United States Minister.

[Inclosure 2.]

Mr. Welsersheimb to Mr. Herdliska.

The Imperial and Royal ministry of foreign affairs has had the honor to receive the esteemed note of August 21, of the present year, No. 20, F. O., in which the honorable North American minister was pleased to communicate a complaint, made by the naturalized American citizen William Trauber, of the treatment he says he experienced recently at the hands of the Imperial and Royal consulate at Braila on his presenting his passport to be viséed.

The ministry for foreign affairs has not delayed making all necessary inquiries in order to arrive at the clear facts of the case, which are as follows:

The case referred to in the esteemed note above mentioned had already been the subject of a direct reclamation on the part of William Trauber, who had applied to the Imperial and Royal legation at Bucharest, and the said legation, after investigating the case, declared itself unable to take further steps in the matter, with which decision Mr. Trauber was made acquainted July 15 of the present year.

The reason why the Imperial and Royal consul at Braila was unable to comply with William Trauber’s repeated demands to have his American passport viséed is due to the following facts:

In accordance with the passport ordinances for the Imperial and Royal missions and consulates the viséing of foreign passports for traveling through Austria-Hungary by Imperial and Royal representative authorities is not needed excepting for Russian and Turkish passports, which are subject to being viséed on grounds of reciprocity.

The Imperial and Royal consul in Braila had consequently no reason for complying with Trauber’s request to visé the American passport he produced, which passport was issued at Athens, as was explicitly made clear to him. The consul had besides special reasons for his noncompliance.

At the very time William Trauber presented his passport to be viséed a check had been forged for a considerable sum at the Austrian banking house of Jeschels & Co., and as several foreign subjects had been arrested on suspicion, the report spread that several other foreigners were implicated in the said forgery.

The Imperial and Royal consulate in Braila, having taken under its protection the banking house in question, participated in investigating the ease and in arresting suspicious characters, and gave orders that all foreign passports for Austria-Hungary should be most carefully examined, and even refused to visé the passports of several foreign individuals. Added to this the fact of William Trauber’s passport having been issued at Athens, and not at Bucharest, where he is alleged to have lived for more than seven years, served as a further cause for suspicion against him. In the said passport, moreover, the printed word “legation” was crossed out and that of “consulate” written above—a procedure decidedly not in accordance with customary precedence.

The Imperial and Royal consul did not only consider himself justified, but found it also his duty, in the interests of the deeply injured firm, to reveal to Mr. Chatiner, head of the banking firm Jeschels & Co. and an Austrian subject, his suspicions with regard to William Trauber’s passport, and the consul can therefore not be held responsible if the aforesaid Mr. Chatiner thought it expedient to make known, on his part, to Mr. Trauber what had been communicated to him in the strictest confidence, nor did the consul think himself obliged to reveal to Mr. Trauber, on being called to account by him, what he had confided to Mr. Chatiner.

That the consul, as alleged by Trauber, brought a charge with regard to him before the public prosecutor is declared by the latter Imperial and Royal functionary as not being in accordance with the actual facts of the case, as are also the further statements made by Trauber, according to which the consul is alleged to have called the passport in question a falsification, to have screamed at him and made use of expressions such as swindler, etc., and to have threatened to tear up the passport as a forgery.

On Trauber appearing for the second time, on July 3, with the renewed request to have his passport viséed, the consul told him what he had already been told on his former visit, namely, that the viséing of his passport was not necessary, and that he could travel throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire without submitting it to the said formula, but should he nevertheless consider the viséing of his passport so very desirable he had only to send it for this purpose first to the American consulate and then to the Imperial and Royal consulate at Bucharest, which might easily be effected through the post. On Trauber’s insisting, however, in peremptory tones, on having the viséing carried out on the part of the Imperial and Royal consulate at Braila, the consul requested him in a decided but in no wise insolent terms to desist from further molestation and to leave the office.

According to the above statements, there can be no question of disrespect having been shown to the passport of the naturalized American citizen William Trauber on the part of the Imperial and Royal consul at Braila, who, as aforesaid, gave him, the claimant, implicitly to understand that he could travel through the monarchy with his American passport without undergoing the formula of viséing. If, therefore, the consul, taking the unusual circumstances of the case into consideration, refused to comply with William Trauber’s obstinate demands to visé his passport, which he, the consul, did not consider himself morally obliged to do, he can not under any pretext whatsoever be charged with a violation of his official duties either in one or the other direction.

In having the honor to respectfully acquaint the honorable chargé d’affaires of the United States of America, Mr. Charles V. Herdliska, with the above facts, the undersigned avails himself at the same time of the opportunity to renew the assurances of his highest consideration.

Vienna, October 4, 1899.

For the minister.

Welsersheimb.