Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 5, 1892

Mr. Foster to Mr. Tavel.

Department of State,
Washington, August 9, 1892.

Sir: Referring to the note which you addressed to me on the 28th ultimo, in relation to the arrest at Bay Ridge, Md., of Dr. Albert Georg, attaché of your legation, by a civil officer, on the 27th of July last, and referring also to the acknowledgment of the receipt of that note which I had the honor to make to you on the 1st instant, I have now the pleasure to communicate to you, in copy, the reply of his excellency the governor of the State of Maryland, stating the result of his investigation of the case and his action thereon.

You will observe that, recognizing the fact that under an accusation for which there was not the slighest color of excuse, Dr. Georg had been subjected to a gross indignity, his excellency the governor has marked his condemnation thereof to the limit of his executive ability so to do by calling for the prompt dismissal of the officer whose blunder in complying with the excited demand of Mrs. Borde was the occasion of this most deplorable incident, and that the officer in question has been discharged from the service of the sheriff and of the Bay Ridge authorities and will not be reinstated.

In making this known to you, and at the same time conveying the profound regrets of his excellency the governor of Maryland for this unfortunate occurrence, and by reason of his inability to offer to Dr. Georg and to your legation any further redress or reparation for the affront to which he has been subjected, I desire to add my own expression on the part of the Government of the United States of no less regret for the wrong, and satisfaction that it has been promptly rebuked so far as lies within the executive competence of the authorities of the State within whose jurisdiction the act was committed.

Accept, sir, etc.,

John W. Foster.

[Inclosure.]

Governor Brown to Mr. Foster.

State of Maryland, Executive Department,
Annapolis, August 8, 1892.

Dear Sir: Immediately upon the receipt of your telegram of the 28th of July ultimo, relating to the recent arrest or Dr. Alfred Georg, an attaché of the Swiss legation, I took the matter in hand and made a thorough personal investigation of the case.

The facts are that on the afternoon of July 27 a woman, giving her name as Mrs. Borde, of Baltimore, accused Dr. Georg at Bay Ridge, near Annapolis, of having taken her pocketbook, and calling James E. Lowman, a deputy sheriff specially assigned to duty at that place, insisted that he should arrest him. Mr. Lowman was reluctant at first to do so, but finally upon her declariug her readiness to make a formal charge against him and to go before a justice of the peace at Annapolis to substantiate it, Dr. Georg was taken into custody and driven in a carriage with her and the officer to Annapolis for a hearing of the charge.

A hearing was had at once before Justice John B. Flood, and there being no evidence whatever to warrant his arrest, Dr. Georg was promptly released and driven back to Bay Ridge in time to take his train to Washington.

In the meantime the pocketbook, with its contents untouched, was found and restored to Mrs. Borde, who, it seems, had mislaid or accidentally dropped it, and under the excitement occasioned by its loss brought this most unfounded accusation against Dr. Georg, without any reason whatever other than that he happened to be near the lunch counter when she discovered her loss.

Without going into the details of the case, it is clear that under an accusation for which there was not the slightest color of excuse Dr. Georg has been subjected to a gross indignity.

Unfortunately, it is not in my power to mark my condemnation of this indignity by any punishment further than by calling for the prompt dismissal of the officer whose blunder in complying with the excited demand of Mrs. Borde was the occasion of this most deplorable incident.

This I have done, and he has been discharged from the service of the sheriff and of the Bay Ridge authorities, and will not be reinstated.

I beg that you will make known to Dr. Georg and the Swiss Legation my official action in this matter, and at the same time express to him and them how profoundly I regret the unfortunate occurrence and my inability to offer to him any further redress or reparation for the affront to which he has been subjected.

Yours, very respectfully,

Frank Brown,
Governor of Maryland.