Mr. Nabeshima to Mr. Hay.
Washington , June 26, 1900 .
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication, dated the 25th instant, in reply to my Nos. 22 and 23, dated the 7th and 12th instant, respectively, and having reference to the discrimination against Japanese subjects in the enforcement of quarantine measures at San Francisco and in Colorado.
The letter of the Surgeon-General of the Marine-Hospital Service, dated the 3d instant, to which allusion is made in the communication under reply, disclosed the gratifying fact that in issuing the orders promulgated by him regarding the quarantine measures to be adopted at San Francisco he had no intention of discriminating against Japanese [Page 750] subjects. Nevertheless, whatever may have been the Surgeon-General’s intention, the directions he originally gave to Surgeon Kinyoun logically entailed such discrimination, as is plainly shown by the action he found it necessary to take after the United States court at San Francisco issued its injunction of May 28. I have no desire to dwell upon this phase of the subject, however, further than to express my deep regret that in a case involving such grave personal injustice to Japanese subjects, and so manifest a violation of their treaty rights, no measure of relief was afforded them until the court intervened and affirmed the illegality of the quarantine measures adopted by the national and local health authorities at San Francisco.
To the statement of the Surgeon-General, which you do me the favor to quote, regarding the quarantine measures adopted in Colorado, Louisiana, and Texas, I beg to reply that I was already aware of the fact that his board had no connection with the action taken by the health authorities of those States. The matter to which I sought to draw attention in my note of the 7th instant was the order issued by the State board of health of Colorado permitting Japanese subjects to travel in Colorado only upon a condition not made applicable to citizens of the United States, or, with the exception of Chinese subjects, to other persons of foreign nationality. The quarantine restrictions reported to have been established by the health authorities of Louisiana and Texas were general in character, and therefore presented an entirely different condition of affairs. But inasmuch as the treaty between Japan and the United States expressly provides that Japanese subjects in the United States and citizens of the United States in Japan shall enjoy the same privileges, liberties, and rights of travel as native citizens and subjects, respectively, or as the subjects or citizens of the most favored nation, I desired by my note of the 7th instant, if the action of the board of health of Colorado was as reported, to obtain the prompt remedy which action so manifestly ultra vires and so gravely violative of rights guaranteed to Japanese subjects by solemn treaty pledge seemed to imperatively demand. Your communication dated the 11th instant, covering a copy of a telegram from the governor of Colorado, showed that the information which prompted my note of the 7th instant was correct. It thus appearing that the facts in this case (as well as those of the quarantine at San Francisco) have been fully ascertained, I must confess to disappointment at not discovering in the note under reply any intimation of redress or any assurance against the recurrence of what amount to serious violations of a principle the observance of which I had ventured to hope would be regarded as a matter of equal concern to both our governments.
Accept, etc.,