Mr. Nabeshima to Mr. Hay.
Washington , May 23, 1900 .
Sir: Referring to my No. 18 of yesterday’s date, regarding the action of the board of health at San Francisco, under direction of the Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service, I have the honor to state that I am in receipt of additional information on the subject from His Imperial Majesty’s consul at that port. It would seem from what Count Mutsu says that he has seen a copy of the telegram from the Surgeon-General to the quarantine authorities, which shows that the order given by the former differs somewhat from the version communicated to Count Mutsu by the board of health. The Surgeon-General’s directions were, in effect, to forbid the sale of tickets by common carriers to persons of Asiatic or other races liable to disease, and also to prevent the transportation of persons infected with or likely to convey the plague to other communities. It seems, however, that the Surgeon-General’s order is being enforced in the manner described in my No. 18 and that Japanese subjects are being discriminated against as therein stated. Nor does it appear, putting aside consideration of the question of principle involved, that the action of the board of health is rendered less onerous and vexatious by the exercise of reasonable discretion. Japanese subjects who desire to leave San Francisco even for a brief space, as in the case of those whose business places are in the city and their residences elsewhere in the neighborhood, must submit to inoculation if they go to their homes. The regulations of the board are enforced, also, regardless of occupation, condition in life, and other circumstances which, under the existing state of affairs at San Francisco, might reasonably be regarded as good cause for immunity. Thus among the persons who have recently been put to serious inconvenience by the action of the board have been the wife of the head of Mitsui & Co., a Japanese firm of long standing and high reputation, and several employees of the same establishment, none of whom had been exposed to infection or were at all likely to spread it.
These facts, I have the honor to state with all due deference, seem to me to show that the board of health at San Francisco is not only acting outside of its powers so far as Japanese subjects are concerned, but is also exercising its functions in a manner calculated to cause them unnecessary trouble and embarrassment.
I trust that you will agree with me that the case is one which calls for prompt remedy.
Accept, etc.,