File No. 351.117/20a.
The Acting Secretary of
State to Ambassador Herrick.
No. 317.]
Department of State,
Washington,
September 24, 1914.
Sir: The Department sends you herewith copy of
a letter of September 17, 1914, from Mr. Milton K. Young of Los Angeles,
California, concerning the detention, for military service in France, of
Francois F. Pellissier, a naturalized citizen of the United States of
[Page 297] French origin. It appears
that he is accompanied by his wife, three children, and his
sister-in-law. The Department also encloses the accompaniment, a
certified copy of the record of Mr. Pellissier’s naturalization as a
citizen of the United States in the Superior Court of California, at Los
Angeles, July 30, 1910.
Please present this case to the French Government, and ask that Mr.
Pellissier be released, and that permission be granted him and the other
members of his family to leave France and return to the United States.
In doing so, please call attention to the facts stated in Mr. Young’s
letter which make it especially important for Mr. Pellissier to return
to this country.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Milton K.
Young to the Secretary of
State.
Los Angeles,
September 17, 1914.
Dear Sir: As the attorney for François F.
Pellissier, I desire to make to you the following
representation:
The said Pellissier is a native of France. He came to the State of
California at the age of fifteen years and has ever since been
resident of said state and remaining within its borders until the
month of May, 1914. He became a naturalized citizen of the United
States by a decree of the Superior Court of the State of California,
rendered on the 30th day of July, 1900. In the month of May of this
year, in company with his wife, three children, and his wife’s
sister, all natives of California, he departed this country for the
purpose of touring Europe. At the outbreak of the recent war, he and
his said family were sojourning at Place 2, Grenette Gap
(Hautes-Alpes), France. He attempted to leave said country with his
family; but was detained by the military authorities and informed
that such detention was for the purpose of impressing him into
military service for the Government of France, in the pending
conflict, in case his services were required. The latest information
from him upon that subject is by letter of date August 14 and at
that time he had not been called to duty in the army. His relatives
here have gained the idea that the other members of his family, all
native-born citizens of this country, are also detained against
their will. This urgent need for Mr. Pellissier’s return to this
country grows out of the following facts:
He is vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Creamery
Company, presumably the largest enterprise of that character in the
State of California, and the direct management and control of its
affairs have been in the hands of C. W. Platt, president, and the
said Pellissier. Since the departure of Mr. Pellissier for France,
the said Platt was shot with a pistol in the hands of a temporarily
deranged person, the result being that he is physically disabled and
wholly incapacitated from attending to the affairs of said business.
A large number of stock-holders are therefore dependent upon the
said Pellissier being able to perform his duties to save them from
irreparable loss and of course the business naturally requires his
presence. The aged parents of Mr. and Mrs. Pellissier are greatly
worried by reason of their absence enforced under existing
circumstances. Mr. Pellissier’s private fortune is invested in the
Creamery Company and will greatly suffer by reason of his continued
absence. Mr. Pellissier is of the age of about thirty-nine years.
The family bear names as follows: wife, Marie F. Pellissier;
children, Frank F. Pellissier, Leon Pellissier, Laurent Pellissier;
sister-in-law, Eugenie Valla.
For the reasons given, we respectfully request that your Department
make such application to the Government of France as it deems
expedient for the return to this country of the persons named.
Most respectfully,
