Mr. Hay to Mr.
de Margerie.
Department of State,
Washington, February 4,
1902.
No. 444.]
Sir: Referring again to your notes of November
24 and December 22 last, I have now the honor to inclose a copy of the
report from the district attorney of the United States for the district
of Washington, relative to the complaint of the violation of the
consular convention of 1853 between the United States and France.
Accept, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
United States attorney for
the district of Washington to the Attorney-General.
Sir: Replying to your letter in re
complaint to the State Department regarding the violations of
consular treaty with the French Republic, Articles VIII and IX, by
State and Federal officers at ports on the Pacific coast, I will say
that there has been no such complaint in this district. The Federal
judges and United States commissioners have uniformly upheld the
authority of foreign consuls and the captains of foreign ships over
their crews in this district, where the crews were not citizens of
the United States. There has never been but one case in this
district that excited any comment or complaint to my knowledge, and
that was a case under the German
[Page 400]
treaty, entitled in re Otto Jens, recently
decided in this district, and in that case all of the hardship and
justifiable complaint would come from the sailors. It developed on
the trial that the petitioner, Otto Jens, and three of his
companions belonging to the crew of the German ship, left the ship
at Port Ludlow September 5 and went to Port Townsend. The master of
the ship telephoned or telegraphed the ship’s agent at Port
Townsend, and the ship’s agent, without any attempt to comply with
the provisions of the treaty or sections 4080 and 4081, Revised
Statutes, pointed the men out to the sheriff of Jefferson County and
requested their arrest. They were taken into custody by the sheriff
about the 5th day of October without any process of any kind. These
are the facts in brief of that case, and upon its trial United
States district judge Handford of this district promptly released
Otto Jens et al., upon a hearing upon habeas corpus.
I have had considerable experience with ships’ captains and the
consuls in this district regarding the enforcement of this and
similar provisions in the consular treaties. My experience is that
the ship captains proceed in these matters in a very high-handed
manner, and there is no careful effort on their part to comply with
the provisions of these treaties regarding the manner in which the
applications provided for shall be made to the magistrates and
authorities. I have yet to see an application in one of these cases
where anything like an official extract from the shipping articles
of the ship was presented; and in my opinion the friction, if any
exists in these matters, has grown out of the failure of the ship
captains and consuls to comply with the plain provisions of the
treaty and the statutes.
Very respectfully,
Wilson R. Gay, United States Attorney.
