File No. 907/31–32.

Minister Wilson to the Secretary of State.

No. 175.]

Sir: As supplementary to my No. 167a, of April 7, I have the honor to transmit herewith a copy and translation of a note just [Page 70] received from the Belgian minister for foreign affairs in which his excellency, adverting to the law on immigration passed by the last Congress, asks for definite information as to its character and scope.

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.

I have, etc.,

Henry Lane Wilson.
[Inclosure.—Translation.]

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Minister Wilson.

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.,

Favereau.
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