File No. 7848/–1.
The German Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Dublin, N. H., July 25, 1907.
Mr. Secretary of State: By direction of my Government I have the honor to bring the following incident to your excellency’s knowledge.
On the 25th of November of last year, Xavier Dick, a Bavarian subject and bricklayer, was severely wounded at Salem, Oreg., with a revolver shot by a policeman who was at the time in the service of that city. Dick had given no occasion whatever for the assault to the policeman, who, according to his own statement, was then on duty. All the further particulars of the case are set forth in the accompanying inclosures,1 the return of which is respectfully requested, viz, an examination of the wounded man, a certificate of the physician, Dr. Binswanger, of Portland, and a letter from Veazie & Veazie, attorneys at law in Portland. As your excellency will kindly see from those papers the undeserved injury incapacitated Dick from work for quite a while. No indemnity can be obtained through a civil action from the offender, who is without means and, on the other hand, it seems that under the law of the State of Oregon neither the city of Salem nor the State can be made accountable for the damage sustained.
Under the circumstances my Government has instructed me to leave it to your excellency’s kindly consideration whether the Federal [Page 356] Government might not take steps toward granting, on the ground of equity, a suitable indemnity to Dick, whose ability to earn a livelihood is seriously impaired. Pursuant to my instructions, I venture to remark that the practice in international law is that a State is liable for injuries illegally inflicted upon a subject of another State by an employee in the discharge of his official duties in so far as that other States guarantee reciprocity. The Royal Bavarian Government stands ready to pledge itself to extend to the United States such reciprocity in cases offering the same presumptions as that of Dick.
Thanking your excellency in advance for such action as you may be pleased to take toward meeting the proposition hereinbefore presented, and looking forward to a favorable answer,
I avail, etc.,
- Not printed.↩