File No. 7848/4.
The German Ambassador to the Secretary of State.
Washington , November 23, 1907 .
Mr. Secretary of State: Referring to your excellency’s kind note of the 26th of September last, No. 622, I have, by direction of my Government, the honor to take up again the case of the shooting of Xavier Dick at Salem, Oreg.
It appears from the statement of the district attorney of Salem, communicated to me at the time and by me brought to the knowledge of the chancellor of the Empire, that the severe injuries by which Xavier Dick’s ability to earn a livelihood was materially impaired were inflicted without any fault of his.
On the other hand, the responsibility of the assailant, Policeman Busick, for the consequences of his act is not removed by the fact that he supposedly acted under a misapprehension and that the ensuing injury was unintentional, even though he could not be punished under the law in force in the State of Oregon. It is, however, a matter of public knowledge that the police officer has no means, so that there can be no question of the claimant obtaining an indemnity from him. If, under the circumstances, the authorities concerned will again take the matter into favorable consideration, they can not fail to recognize that the granting of an indemnity to the injured man by the State of Oregon or the city of Salem, in whose service the police officer was and whose interests he thought he was serving by undertaking to arrest Dick, would seem equitable. In case the injured man should, as appears to be likely from the report of Dr. Binswanger, dated in Portland, March 27 last, has either entirely recovered in the meanwhile or substantially regained his ability to earn a livelihood, the amount of the indemnity could be kept within moderate limits.
I should be particularly obliged to your excellency if you would address the governor of the State of Oregon in that sense.
Looking forward to an obliging answer, I avail, etc.,