No. 727.
Baron de
Fava to Mr. Bayard.
[Translation.]
Legation of Italy,
Washington, May 17, 1888.
(Received May 18.)
Mr. Secretary of State: The consul general of
the King at New York has just addressed to me the report of which I
herewith have the honor to forward to your excellency a copy in the
Italian language, with the request that you will be kind enough to have
its contents examined by the competent authority.
By this report it appears that the custom-house at New York gives too
broad and inaccurate an interpretation to the direction contained in the
second section of the American law “to regulate immigration,” in virtue
of which “convicts” can not land in the United States.
The inconveniences set forth by the above-mentioned consul general
seeming to me to be of a nature to attract the kind attention of the
Federal Government, I take the liberty of bespeaking in advance the good
offices of your excellency, in order that, if necessary, new
instructions may be given to the custom house at New York to put an end
to them.
In thanking you in advance I take this occasion to renew, etc.
[Inclosure.]
Mr. Raffo to
Baron de Fava.
Royal Consulate of Italy,
New York, May 16,
1888.
Baron: I have the honor to call your
attention to a matter which has been reported to me by the president
of the Italian Emigration Society of this city.
It is the duty of the collector of customs, as you are aware, to
prevent the landing of such emigrants as do not fullfill the
requirements of the Federal law governing immigration; one of the
cases in which he is under obligations to send back an immigrant in
the same vessel in which he came is when proof is furnished that the
person is a convict.
This word evidently means one who has in any way avoided serving out
the penalty to which he has been sentenced, either by flight or by
expulsion, or even by means of a pardon, or who has been temporarily
released, but it has been interpreted by the collector of customs of
this port as applicable to those who have served out a term of
imprisonment.
The clause to which I have referred, which was inserted in the law,
in my opinion, in order to prevent what had sometimes been done by
European Governments, viz, the shipments of convicts to America for
the purpose of getting rid of them, is now interpreted in the most
illiberal sense; according to this interpretation, persons are
allowed to land in these States who do not come as immigrants, that
is, as steerage passengers, and who are wanted by the police
authorities of their own country. That is to say, those who, having
the means to do so, escape to this country in order
[Page 1057]
to avoid the grip of justice in
their own—in other words, real criminals are permitted to land
without molestation, while those who have served out their time and
can no longer he considered as convicts are debarred from doing
so.
Of the immigrants who recently arrived by the steamer Marthe, twenty-eight, together with five who
had arrived by the Cachar, were for the above
reason detained at Castle Garden; of these, twenty-four, who had
served terms of not more than one month each, were allowed to land,
owing to the representations made by our immigration society; the
others are to be sent back to Italy.
