File No. 907/31–32.
His excellency the minister—as will be noted—desires to be
authoritatively informed at as early a date as possible both as to the
character of the law and the interpretation placed upon it by the
Department of Justice.
Not having been furnished with any copies of the law nor with
instructions of the department relative to its application, I have not
been able to supply the information requested, and I deem it
expedient—as suggested in my No. 167,a above referred to—to have some expression of the
department’s views.
I would also suggest that copies of the laws now in force be sent
hither.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]
The Minister for Foreign
Affairs to Minister Wilson.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Brussels, May 3,
1907.
No. 1370.]
Mr. Minister: Your excellency kindly
advised me on September 15, 1906, of the desire expressed by the
Department of State at Washington to see the Government of the King
facilitate the mission confided to Mr. E. J. Watson, chief of the
bureau of immigration of South Carolina, with the object of securing
for the said state a certain number of Belgian weavers and
agriculturists.
The steps taken in our country by Mr. Watson established the fact
that the larger part of the laborers disposed to go to South
Carolina and seeming to have the necessary qualities to succeed
there did not possess sufficient resources to pay the price of the
passage for themselves and their families.
Consequently he requested from my department the authorization to
advance to the families finding themselves in this condition the
total or partial sum of the price of passage. The advances thus made
were to be reimbursed by those interested in the course of the first
six months or first year after their arrival in the United
States.
Under date of October 4 last your excellency kindly transmitted to me
a letter from Mr. Watson indicating the guaranties which he was
disposed to give to the Government of the King if he were permitted
to engage Belgian laborers.
My department authorized him, under those conditions, to make
contracts, and since then several groups of Flemish weavers and
agriculturists have been embarked for Charleston.
As your excellency is doubtless aware, the question has been raised
in the United States to determine whether the conditions under which
the State of South Carolina had brought over foreign laborers were
not contrary to the provisions of the law of 1903 on
immigration.
Mr. Earle, legal adviser of the Department of Commerce and Labor, has
rendered the opinion that there has not been in this instance a
violation of the legal provisions in force.
The new federal law, passed the 20th of February last, and which will
go into effect the 1st of July next, prohibits, in a more precise
manner than in the old law, the admission into the United States of
persons whose passage may have been paid by individuals or by a
group of individuals.
Moreover, my attention has been called to the opinion which the
Attorney-General of the United States has just addressed to the
governor of South Carolina.
The honorable Mr. Bonaparte specially points out that the inducement
of emigration by offers, promises, etc., although contrary to the
bill of 1903, was not a cause for expulsion. According to article 2
of the new law the immigrant arriving under these conditions will
not be allowed to enter the country.
[Page 71]
In view of this same article, the different States of the Union will
be allowed to continue to pay the passage of the immigrant, but the
fact of societies, corporations, or associations contributing to
this immigration fund, as appears to have been the case in Mr.
Watson’s mission, will constitute a cause for expulsion.
My department, by reason of the obligation incumbent upon it to
protect Belgian emigrants, must guard as far as possible that those
who desire to go to the United States should not be denied the
privilege of disembarking upon their arrival.
The authorization formerly accorded to Mr. Watson to engage Belgian
workmen can not, therefore, be continued unless my department has
every guarantee as to the reception which will be accorded them.
I think that I can not do better under these circumstances than to
have recourse to the obliging intermediary of your excellency in
ascertaining if the conditions, under which the recruiting of
laborers secured for South Carolina has been effected until the
present time, can be continued without inconvenience, or what would
be eventually the modifications necessary to make these conditions
conform with the provisions of the new law.
The solution of this question presents a certain urgency since,
according to information received at my department, Mr. Watson will
shortly return to Belgium with the object of again engaging
agricultural and industrial laborers.
I take this occasion, etc.,
