File No. 311.59/70
The Acting Secretary of State to the Danish Minister ( Brun)
Sir: Referring to your notes of April 8 and May 7 [17], 1918,1 in regard to the claim of Capt. M. S. Hveissel for pecuniary losses caused by his internment at Ellis Island, I have the honor to inform you that I am in receipt of a letter, dated June 13, from the Department of Justice reading in part as follows:
This Department has the honor to advise you that Captain Hveissel is evidently under misapprehension when he states that he was interned at Ellis Island. Captain Hveissel was originally detained on October 31, 1917, by the immigration authorities at Ellis Island, as is customary in all cases where aliens apply for admission into the United States. No presidential warrant was ever issued for the detention of Captain Hveissel, but in his application for permission to enter and depart from the United States he made a statement to the effect that he was a native of the German Empire. The immigration authorities, as is customary in such matters, granted a hearing to Captain Hveissel and found him “inadmissible under the immigration laws, but being a native of Germany, unanimously excluded under regulation 10 of the President’s proclamation of April 6, 1917.” On November 13, 1917, a copy of the hearing and decision by the Special Board of Inquiry by the Departments Labor was forwarded to this Department in order that a decision might be rendered by the Department on the application of Captain Hveissel that he be allowed to enter and depart from the United States. On December 11, 1917, this Department advised the Secretary of Labor that the Department of Justice consented to the entrance and departure of Captain Hveissel and a formal permit to enter and depart was at that time granted. In due course, Captain Hveissel was released by the immigration authorities on December 19, 1917, and granted a permit to depart from the United States.
From these facts you can readily see that Captain Hveissel was at no time held under internment process and that his case was entirely one under the immigration law at all stages with the exception that a permit from this Department was necessary before he could be allowed by the immigration authorities to enter and depart from the United States. The question of granting a permit to him was decided upon in due course with only such delay as was necessary to a proper and thorough investigation of the circumstances of his arrival in the United States, the purpose of his visit and the advisability of granting him admission.
[Page 222]While the Department realizes that Captain Hveissel was put to considerable inconvenience as the result of the procedure followed in all cases where alien enemies apply for admission into the United States under regulation 10 of the President’s proclamation of April 6, 1917, nevertheless, this Department is firmly of the opinion that it would be dangerous to the safety and welfare of the United States to allow natives of the German Empire, though naturalized in countries other than the United States, to freely enter and depart from the United States without a thorough and careful investigation as to the reasons for their presence in or departure from the United States, especially in view of the fact that persons falling within this class are in a peculiarly advantageous position to render aid and assistance to the enemies of the United States. This Department, furthermore, is of the opinion that persons of this class, unless properly vouched for, should be detained at the port of arrival or departure for a sufficient length of time to allow any information from the enemy or of value to the enemy to become worthless by lapse of time.
Accordingly, this Department has the honor to state that in its opinion the claim submitted by Captain Hveissel is without foundation.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed.↩