Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 2, 1902

Mr. White to Mr. Hay.

Embassy of the United States,
Berlin, June 30, 1902.

No. 1987.]

Sir: Referring to the embassy’s dispatch No. 1814 of December 31, 1901, I have the honor to append hereto a memorandum report of certain military cases, more particularly mentioned below, which have not been the subject of previous correspondence or which have been settled during the quarter ending to-day. There were no military cases to report for the quarter ending March 30 last.

I am, etc.,

And. D. White.

[Inclosure.]

Military case report.

At the instance of his attorney, Mr. Theo. Steeg, of Buffalo, N. Y., the embassy addressed a note (F. O., No. 1130) to the imperial foreign office on March 21, 1902, in support of the petition to be allowed to visit his former home, which had been sent to the Imperial Statthalter at Strasburg by one Rene (Renatus) Huttler, an American citizen of Alsatian origin. Under date of April 9 the foreign office replied that the desired permission had been granted as a result of the embassy’s intervention.

On March 8, 1902, the embassy learned through the United States consulate at Kiel, Baden, that Eugene Herr, an American citizen born in Wurttemberg, had been arrested on crossing the frontier at Deutsch-Avricourt and had been transferred to a prison at Lörchingen, in Lorraine, on account of his evasion of military service, and intervention (F. O., No. 1123) was at once made in his behalf. A few days later, March 11, the embassy was informed that Herr had been released after depositing 400 marks as security for the payment of a military fine, and it at once renewed its intervention (F. O., No. 1124) in his behalf. So far as the embassy is aware, Herr was not molested again, and under date of April 28 the foreign office intimated to the embassy that the Wurttemberg authorities were ready to return the money in question upon Herr’s submitting an authenticated copy of the certificate of his American naturalization, and stated that the local district attorney had been directed to communicate with the United States consul at Stuttgart in order to bring this about.

At his own request the embassy addressed a note (F. O., No. 1153) to the foreign office on April 21, 1902, in support of a petition sent in by Meyer Schwartz, an American citizen of Alsatian origin, for permission to visit his father at Strasburg, and under date of June 9 it was informed by the foreign office that in view of this action the permission had been granted as desired.

J. B. J.