File No. 23814/11.

Ambassador Reid to the Secretary of State.

No. 1216.]

Sir: On receipt of your cable instruction of the 13th instant I immediately took steps to investigate whether the commissioner of assize at Leeds had taken the course reported to you through the American consul general in London.

The first information which I received from the consul at Leeds, which was confirmed by the press reports, led me to believe that the commissioner of assize had merely withheld sentence on the ground that Alfred Lumb should leave the country within a certain period and that the court itself had made no reference to the prisoner’s going to the United States.

On receipt, however, of a copy of the transcript of the court records it became evident that the commissioner, in addressing the prisoner, said, “Are you ready, if I let you go, to be bound over to go to America?” to which the prisoner replied, “Yes,” and thereupon the commissioner stated that he was prepared to release prisoner on his recognizance and his brother’s for the sum of £50 each.

I have accordingly to-day addressed a note to the foreign office in which, after bringing the facts to the attention of Sir Edward Grey, I request him to take such steps as may be necessary to prevent the consummation of the order.

I have, etc.,

Whitelaw Reid.
[Inclosure.]

Ambassador Reid to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Sir: My attention has been called to reports published in the Yorkshire Evening Post of the 8th and 9th instant to the effect than one Alfred Lumb, a British subject, has been indicted for uttering counterfeit coin and for silvering with a certain liquid pennies and a halfpenny so that they would resemble current silver coins, to which indictment the prisoner pleaded guilty.

It appears that having asked prisoner whether in the event of his discharge being granted he would be ready to be bound over to leave the country and to go to America, and the prisoner having answered in the affirmative, the commissioner announced that prisoner would be released upon entering into a recognizance of £50 to leave the country within one month, the prisoner’s brother entering into a like recognizance that the prisoner would go within the stated period.

If the reports that have appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post are not incorrect, it would appear that the commissioner of assize was unaware of the provisions of the United States immigration act of 1875, section 3, providing that “it shall be unlawful for aliens of the following classes, namely * * * whose sentence has been remitted on condition of their emigration”—this provision being intended to put a stop to a practice in certain countries, whereby, on sending such persons to the United States, the authorities were able to avoid the trouble and expense of taking care of their own criminals.

The immigration act of February 22, 1907, provides that persons inter alios who have been convicted of or admit having committed a felony shall be excluded from admission to the United States. Lumb would therefore, if his identity were discovered, not only be denied admission but would, on his arrival, be deported.

In bringing the matter to your attention, I wish to point out, in order to avoid similar cases in the future, what will, I think, have occurred to you, that the commissioner of [Page 596] assize, in postponing a sentence upon the express condition that the prisoner should go to America, was unwittingly violating international comity, in requiring by his sentence that the prisoner before him should attempt to violate the laws of the United States.

My Government feels confident that if the facts of the case prove to be as stated you will take such steps as may be necessary to prevent the consummation of the commissioner’s order.

I have, etc.,

Whitelaw Reid.