No. 458.
Mr. Coleman to Mr. Bayard.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Berlin, June 1, 1888.
(Received June 18.)
No. 622.]
Sir: I have to-day sent you a telegram to the
effect that from this date passports bearing the visa of the German embassy
at Paris will be required of all foreigners entering Alsace-Lorraine from
France.
The decree upon which the foregoing telegram is based, and which is inclosed
herewith in its official form, together with a translation, was promulgated
by the Alsace-Lorraine authorities on the 22d ultimo, to take effect from
to-day. Strenuous efforts have been made in the interval in various quarters
to secure the repeal or modification of this measure, but in vain.
On calling yesterday at the foreign office to secure a copy of the official
publication of the decree, I was informed that it would certainly be upheld,
but that the visa of the German embassy at Paris would be furnished to all
foreigners other than Frenchmen applying for the same at once and without
question upon the payment of a fee of 10 marks. To Frenchmen the visa would,
however, not be given until after correspondence between the German embassy
and Alsace-Lorraine authorities.
This information, thus officially authenticated, I at once conveyed to our
legation at Paris. I have been told that the object of the measure in
question was to discourage and restrict intercourse bet ween the French and
the inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine. This is corroborative of statements
[Page 636]
contained in an article published
on the 29th ultimo, in the Nord-deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, a journal
generally understood to be inspired by the chancellor of the Empire with
respect to questions of political importance discussed in its columns. A
copy, with translation, of this interesting article, pronounced in German
press comments to be amazingly frank in its declarations, is herewith
inclosed.
I also transmit herewith a cutting,* taken from the same number of the above-mentioned
journal, which contains the new rules governing the sojourn of Frenchmen in
Alsace-Lorraine, as prescribed by the authorities of that territory, under
date of the 23d ultimo. While these rules do not directly affect American
citizens, they may, in connection with the subject of this dispatch,
nevertheless be found useful for reference on the files of the
Department.
I have, etc.,
[Inclovsure 1 in No.
622.—Translation.—Central and District Gazette for
Alsace-Lorraine.]
Decree requiring foreigners entering Alsace-Lorraine
from France to produce passports.
Upon the basis of the law of October 2, 1795 (10 Vendémiaire of the year
IV), and of October 19, 1797 (28 Vendémiaire of the year VI), as well as
of the ordinance of April 20, 1814, the following is hereby decreed:
I. From Thursday, May 31, 1888, all foreigners crossing the French
frontier, regard less of the distinction of their journey being in the
nature of a transit or for the purpose of sojourn in the country, must
be in possession of a passport provided with the visa of the German
embassy at Paris. The visa must not be more than a year old.
Cards showing the avocation of foreign commercial travelers (proclamation
of the Imperial chancellor of October 31, 1883, Central Gazette for the
German Empire, page 305) do not replace the necessary passport.
Foreigners not in possession of a regular passport are to be prevented
from continuing their journey, and in case of necessity to be conducted
across the frontier.
German subjects crossing the French frontier do not require a
passport.
II. From the requirement of having a passport are excepted the
inhabitants of the French frontier communities, in so far as they maybe
repairing for business purposes to a neighboring German frontier
community, and satisfy the frontier police officials that such is the
case.
Strassburg, May 22, 1888,
ministry for Alsace-Lorraine, Department of the Interior. The Under
Secretary of State.
Studt.
Inclosure 2 in No. 622.—Extract from
Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung of May 29,
1888.—Translation.]
An incorrect significance would be attributed to the German passport
pleasures at the French frontier if they were regarded as reprisals on
account of particular occurrences such as those at Avricourt or at
Belfort. Those and many other similar ones have no immediate
significance in connection with the measures of the German Government,
but have importance only indirectly as symptoms of the situation. The
passport measures, like those adopted to strengthen our defensive power,
have no relation to particular events but constitute a result of our
collective policy. German policy and the administration of the
Reichslande (Alsace-Lorraine) in particular must necessarily aim to
consolidate the re-acquisition of Alsace by vivifying and strengthening
the relations of that country with Germany. A principal obstacle in the
way of the solution of this task consists in the continuance of the
social and economic relations with France which naturally existed when
the reunion with Germany took place. The effect of this condition of
affairs is essentially increased and attains to international acuteness
in consequence of the excitations and baitings resulting from
anti-German sentiment and the preparations for the war of revenge, for
the re-acquisition of Alsace by means of espionage and agitation among
the inhabitants of the country through associations and all sorts of
other devices. As a consequence of these invitations, the hostile
bearing of the French people towards us has not only remained
[Page 637]
undiminished during the last
seventeen years, hut has become more acute, as the occurrences at
Belfort demonstrate.
The hope that a French Government would ultimately find itself strong
enough to oppose this course, which jeopardizes the peace of both
nations, has not been verified. Even with peaceful intentions the French
Government have heretofore found the means to strengthen themselves in
promoting, rather than in soothing, the national hatred. The feeling of
the French population in the provinces remains continuously at a height
of hatred of us which does not permit Germans to show themselves
anywhere in France without danger of life and limb, and the initiative
of a few gamins, suffices to cause outbreaks of this dangerous feeling.
Neither the reserve of German policy nor the accommodating spirit shown
by it in great and small political questions ha& been able to
produce a change in that feeling. In the wars of 1813–1815 France
relatively sustained greater loss and was treated with greater violence
than in that of 1870. Nevertheless, within a period of only ten years
after the Treaty of Paris in 1825, the French annals will be searched in
vain for a trace of similar hatred on the part of France of her
neighbors, of similar lust for revenge for lost battles such as those of
Leipsic and Waterloo, as is manifested to-day in the columns of all
French papers, and in the demeanor of the population of the provinces of
France. The futility of the reserve and caution hitherto observed by
Germany with the attendant hopelessness of bringing about a change in
French sentiment excites in Germany no warlike plans and feeling. We
carry respect for the independence of our neighbors to the degree of
complete toleration of even the most unjust hatred of us. We desire no
war, we desire only more remote relations with
France, and as we are tied to our vicinage we must content ourselves
with becoming more reserved in our intercourse with France, and to
restrict it more than heretofore on the frontier, where it is made use
of to agitate the population of German Alsace. We wish that the French
should be more moderate in their intercourse with Alsace, and shall feel
no regret if France shall, in consequence, adopt measures tending in an
analogous manner to restrict the visits to French territory of our
German people. This course is free from enmity; we only employ permitted
international means to promote the historic process of the
regermanization of the German imperial lands and the dissolution of
their connection with France. The international frictions made possible
and furthered by the heretofore existing intercourse of the French with
Alsace would in the long run be more dangerous to the maintenance of
peace than a sharper emphasizing of the frontier and its separating
effect could be. We therefore believe that the Imperial Government is
serving the interests of peace when it meets France in the endeavor
to-closely control frontier intercourse and sets limits to its intimacy,
thereby excluding: as far as possible political frictions.
