Baron Fava to Mr. Hay.
Washington, January 21, 1900.
Mr. Secretary of State: In your kind note of the 20th instant, your excellency, in reply to my communication of the 7th instant, was pleased to inform me that your colleague of the Treasury regretted [Page 440] that, for reasons given in the note, he was unable to say how or where the delegates of the foreign consulates at New York could approach the immigrants at the Barge Office. You add, however, that the Secretary of the Treasury given reason to hope that when the buildings at Ellis Island are finished such measures may be taken in the interest of the emigrants admitted as will permit their friends to communicate with them and to take care of them. At that time, as I further read in the note to which I am replying, it may also be possible to accommodate all those who are seeking, philanthropically or benevolently, to assist the immigrants, either by finding work for them or by protecting them from the rapacity and fraud of speculators.
Thanking your excellency for your communication, which I shall not fail to convey to my Government, I hasten to take note of the intention of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide, after the transfer of the Federal commissioners of immigration to Ellis Island, for the legitimate interests of the immigrants admitted, by enabling them to obtain assistance from the persons whose duty it is to protect them.
Accept, etc.,