File No. 811.7111/57.

[Untitled]

No. 251.]

Sir: With reference to my telegram of February 21, I have the honor to transmit herewith enclosed a copy of a note I have just received from the Foreign Office conveying a request from Sir Edward Grey that you do all in your power to prevent the departure from the United States of a body of negroes who it is believed propose to emigrate from the State of Oklahoma to the Gold Coast Colony, leaving the United States on the 26th instant induced thereto by the fraudulent representations of a negro named Sam.

I have [etc.]

Walter Hines Page
.
[Inclosure.]

The British Foreign Office to Ambassador Page.

Your Excellency: I have the honour to inform your excellency that correspondence has recently passed between His Majesty’s Ambassador at Washington and the United States State Department relative to the activities of a negro named Sam in Oklahoma. This individual, who claims, apparently, to be an African chief and the authorized agent of His Majesty’s Government to transport negroes to the Gold Coast, seems to have been spreading propaganda among the negro population of Boggs, Oklahoma, and selling shares in an “African Trading Company,” with a view to inducing negroes to emigrate to the Gold Coast Colony.

His Majesty’s Government, of whom the United States Government enquired through Sir C. Spring Rice as to the possibilities of negroes from the United States acquiring land in the Gold Coast Colony, are strongly of opinion that the immigration of these negroes into that colony should not be encouraged for the reason that the land is almost entirely held communally by the native chiefs and communities, so that a negro from the United States could only obtain land by adoption into a native community—which as the immigrants would presumably be Christian and civilized would no doubt be unacceptable to them—or by lease, which would involve lengthy formalities and uncertain results. In addition to these objections, His Majesty’s Government consider that the climate and conditions of the Colony are entirely unsuited to natives of the North American continent.

Enquiries have, moreover, been made as to the bona fides of the negro Sam, with the result that it has been ascertained that his transactions are not genuine, nor the Company for which he acts reliable. The Gold Coast Government have denied that they have any authorized immigration agent.

According to a telegram from His Majesty’s Ambassador dated the 16th instant, five hundred negro emigrants propose to leave the United States for the Gold Coast on or about the 26th instant on the strength of the propaganda of this individual and of certain leases which he purports to have acquired in the Colony.

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In view of the undesirable character of Sam, of the unsuitability of the Gold Coast climate, and of the fact that the inducements held out are unfounded, His Majesty’s Government most earnestly desire that steps may be taken by the United States Government to prevent the departure of these emigrants. His Majesty’s Government are morally certain that the entire scheme is fraudulent.

I have the honour therefore to request that your excellency will be good enough to advise your Government by telegraph of these facts, of the nature of the scheme put forward by Sam and of the certainty that these intending emigrants are foredoomed to disappointment, and that you will request them to do all in their power to prevent their departure.

I have [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
W. Langley
.