As will be seen, this letter discusses on principle the right or the
Hungarian Government to carry out its own internal laws and regulations
with regard to its own citizens—both those who leave the country for the
first time, and that numerous class who have already in the past gone to
America, have come back for a longer or shorter period to their native
country without having acquired legal American citizenship, and who wish
to go to America a second time.
The laws and governmental decrees and regulations of Hungary on this
subject have been long since transmitted to the Department by me, and
afford in complete detail the basis of the present attitude of the
government of that country toward its own citizens.
It will be observed that, so far as all emigrants of Hungarian
nationality are concerned, the Hungarian Government will not allow its
right as an independent country to make such arrangements as will
necessarily and avowedly give rise to a complete monopoly of this
traffic to be called into question, and will, with all the official and
police influence in its power, enforce that monopoly. The fusion of
interests between the Hungarian Government and the Cunard company to the
exclusion of all competing vessels, to which I have so often referred,
remains complete, and, to judge from the instructions of the Department
at the instance of the American Line and Red Star Line, is becoming
effective.
It will also be observed that the Hungarian Government asserts that it
has repeatedly and in the strongest terms instructed all its officers
and all the magistracy of that Kingdom to maintain the utmost care not
to molest or interfere with persons desiring to emigrate who are not
Hungarian citizens, and to pay the utmost respect to treaty rights.
This is undoubtedly the fact, but it is to be presumed, for reasons
already given the Department at different times—for instance, in my No.
186 of the 29th of November, 1904a—that such instructions are largely disregarded;
at least that if there be the slightest question in any case, it will
always by the officials and police be resolved in favor of the
government and the Cunard company.
The remarks of the Hungarian Government tending to explain the difficulty
of investigation and identification by its officers of persons who
display documentary evidence tending to show rights of American
citizenship, arising from manifold differences of language, have a
substantial basis of truth. A large proportion of cases arising on
applications for passports, or on complaint and demand for protection,
show inaccuracies and differences in name and spelling most liable to
mislead and often giving rise to grave suspicion. It has occurred that a
former passport contained the alleged name of the bearer spelled in one
way, his naturalization paper spelling it in another, while the new
application spells and writes it still in a third. Quite often these
signatures are in quite dissimilar handwriting, and the names otherwise
distorted.
Attention, it will be seen, is also called by the Hungarian Government to
the variety in form and wording of the various official documents relied
on to prove American citizenship. The Department will remember the
various changes in minor details in the form and decoration of passports
in past years. From what I have had submitted
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on applications for passports made to me during the
last eight years, it is my opinion that no two States of the Union have
any identical form of certificate of citizenship, and in many cases the
same form is not used in all counties in the same State, or even all
courts of the same county. The substance and effect of the law may be
there expressed, but the varieties of wording and expression, of general
appearance, of armorial decoration, and seals are often enough to cast a
doubt as to the genuineness of the certificate even in the mind of an
English-speaking official. I have no doubt that this excuse for
misunderstanding and delay in many cases is a sincere and justifiable
one, and in such cases the penalty must be borne by the person who seeks
to prove his American citizenship.
Taking up the individual cases alluded to by the Hungarian Government, I
beg to say that the letters of complaint of the embassy spoken of as
addressed to the foreign office “as my letters Nos. 128, 131, and 149”
were written in January, 1905, under the instructions of the Department.
* * *
[Inclosure.
Translation.]
The Minister of Foreign
Affairs to Ambassador Storer.
Imperial and Royal Ministry of Foreign
Affairs,
Vienna, July 20,
1905.
With the esteemed notes of the 31st of December, 1904, Nos. 124 and
125, it has pleased his excellency the ambassador of the United
States of America, Mr. Bellamy Storer, to ask for the interference
of the undersigned with the Royal Hungarian Government in cases in
which prepaid tickets for the journey to America via Antwerp and
Bremen have been confiscated from emigrants and American
citizens.
The undersigned has not failed to transmit these communications, as
well as the esteemed notes Nos. 128, 131, and 149, which have
analogous cases to their subjects to the Royal Hungarian ministry of
the interior with the request to make careful investigations of
these cases of complaint and to communicate the result.
The reply of the said Royal Hungarian central office (ministry of the
interior) has now reached this office, and though the same does not
comprise all the cases above referred to, the undersigned, in
compliance with the request of the Royal Hungarian Government,
thinks that he should not delay to inform his excellency the
ambassador of the United States of America of the point of view in
principle from which the latter looks at this question, as well as
of the result of investigations of the cases which have been cleared
up to this date.
The regulation of the Hungarian emigration by means of law had the
intention on the one hand to restrict emigration and on the other to
assist those Hungarian citizens who could not be prevented from
emigrating and to protect their interests.
For this reason the Royal Hungarian Government orders the seizure of
letters, printed matter, and ship tickets which are sent to Hungary
by unlicensed enterprises and secret agents, in accordance with the
terms of Article IV [VI] of the law of 1903. As these measures are
taken only against Hungarian citizens and are practised on Hungarian
territory only, they represent an internal home affair of Hungary,
which is beyond protest on the part of a foreign government.
If, therefore, the described mode of procedure has been modified in
the case of bona fide holders of prepaid tickets who have received
the same by mail from their relatives, this has been done solely in
the interest of the Hungarian citizens concerned. For the reasons
above given, the introduction of this modified practice can not be
regarded as something done out of consideration for the interests of
the navigation companies and their open and secret agents nor a
concession to foreign governments.
The matter is a different one if foreign citizens are concerned
thereby. The utmost regard has been paid to the treaty rights of
foreigners both in Article IV [VI] of the law of 1903 and in all
ordinances issued by the government for its putting in effect. The
duty of the observance of greatest regard as to foreigners has been
repeatedly called to the attention of the officials in the strongest
terms, and their attention has also repeatedly been called to the
fact that foreigners are not obliged to exhibit passports or other
proofs of identity unless this
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seems to be necessary for police reasons. The mode of procedure
by the authorities in this regard is strictly supervised, and severe
disciplinary punishments are insured in case of neglect.
On this occasion attention must be called to the fact that the
procedure of the Hungarian authorities in the case of citizens of
foreign countries is hampered in an extraordinary degree by the
difficulty of fixing the identity of persons from the documents
exhibited in doubtful cases, in consequence of the difference of
language; and in most of these cases the same can only be finally
decided by the superior authorities. In cases of former Hungarian
citizens who have acquired the citizenship of the United States this
identification is still more complicated by the fact that the
authorities are strongly misled by the variety in form and mode of
expression, as well as the legal effect, of the American
certificates of naturalization. It has occurred, for instance, that
a Hungarian authority took such persons as American citizens who
held only a so-called “first paper” and whose citizenship was not
recognized afterwards by the consul-general of the United States of
America at Budapest. In addition to the above there has also been
observed with regret the circumstance that Hungarians who had
sojourned for some time in the United States regard themselves as
American citizens or pass themselves off for such ones, and on this
ground take advantage of the authorities of the United States, and
that they also try to deceive both the Hungarian authorities and
those of the United States by the purchase of forged documents.
As confirmation of the above said the following cases may be
mentioned:
The consul-general of the United States at Budapest interfered last
year in the case of one Sebastian Rucz, from whom the
Stadthauptmannschaft (office of the town militia) at Iglo had taken
away his American certificate of naturalization.
From investigation made in this connection it was shown that the
certificate of naturalization was issued in the name of one of
Markus Rusini and certainly belonged to him. Rusini immigrated into
the United States at an age of 18 years, while S. Rucz, according to
his own subsequent confession, was at that time already 24 years
old. The consul-general at Budapest afterwards refused to recognize
S. Rucz as an American citizen and retained the document to have an
investigation of the matter made at Washington to ascertain thereby
who the intermediary was by whose aid S. Rucz got possession of the
certificate of naturalization of Rusini.
The other case concerns the complaint of Josef and Lizzie Harvan,
known to his excellency the American ambassador from the
communication of the undersigned No. 9971, ex 1905. The latter
(Lizzie Harvan) made complaint that she and her daughter, being 4
years of age, had been prevented from going back to America, while
investigations turned out that it was not her daughter whom Mrs.
Harvan attempted to smuggle over the frontier, but a relative of
Hungarian citizenship, 14 to 16 years old, and who held no
passport.
These cases show already that the watchfulness of the Hungarian
authorities is founded on good reason and that the same is
especially well applied in cases where former Hungarian citizens,
naturalized in the United States, go to America accompanied by
emigrants.
The Hungarian Government, at its regret, becomes aware for some time
that the secret emigrant agents of the navigation companies are
recruited in an increasing measure from Hungarians established in
America, who use their certificate of naturalization of the United
States only for carrying out in an easier way their unlawful and
often cheating maneuvers. For this reason cases increased where
American citizens had to be sentenced to punishment on condemnation
for soliciting persons to emigrate. Josef Gerzsan, of New Haven, for
instance, was sentenced to thirty days’ imprisonment and a fine of
300 crowns; Moritz Wilhelm Weisz, of Montana, to five days’ arrest
and a fine of 60 crowns; and the American citizen, Leopold Schreter,
to two months imprisonment and a fine of 600 crowns.
The gathering of further data is continued, and the Royal Hungarian
Government declares its willingness to communicate their result to
his excellency the ambassador of the United States of America at a
later date for the information of the United States authorities.
After having made these introductory remarks, the undersigned has the
honor to pass on to the different cases of complaint, whose result
of investigation has been established up to this day. First of all,
what regards the list of those 21 persons whose complaint formed the
subject of the note of his excellency the ambassador of the United
States of America, of December 30, 1904, No. 123, it may be allowed
to remark that those persons were without exception Hungarian
citizens. As they were in possession of tickets of the Belgian Red
Star Line, a company not licensed for transportation of emigrants in
Hungary, it was not only the right of the local authorities, but
their duty, to proceed against them in accordance with the law. If
these emigrants were not satisfied with the steps taken against them
by the authorities, they should have made complaint, as Hungarian
citizens, direct to the superior Hungarian authorities.
On this occasion it may also be laid down that the Red Star Line is
that navigation company which practices an unbridled emigration
propaganda, which attracts especially women and minor girls, by
spreading the untrue assertion that no passports are required for
women traveling on its ships; that complaints have been made
repeatedly against this company’s ships; that on board of this
company’s ship Vaderland, 11 Hungarian
citizens have
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died, and that
the result of the investigations made in the last-mentioned case is
in contradiction to the information (of a deeply compromising
character) which the Hungarian Government in this connection has
received from America.
Concerning the case of the American citizen Mrs. Anna Tirpak (see
esteemed note of February 17, 1905, No. 131), the result of
investigation has shown very considerable exaggerations in the
complaint. It is true, indeed, that on the 25th of November, 1904,
Mrs. Tirpak, coming to Budapest from Kassa, was brought to the
police there. But after having stated that she was an American
citizen she was brought, still on the same day, to the American
consulate-general, and, as her American citizenship was recognized
at this office, at once set free.
The statement that she was forcibly brought back to Kassa by the
police is a pure invention.
Similar severe treatment was endured, but quite through their own
fault, by the American citizens Esther Schenker and Ella Burger.
(See esteemed note of January 19, 1905, No. 128.) The said ladies,
traveling from Kassa to Antwerp, when invited to show their
certificates of identity, on the 10th of November, 1904, did not
produce American documents, but a certificate issued by their
Hungarian parish. The officials therefore took them for Hungarian
emigrants, who intended to leave the country without the prescribed
passport, and brought them back to their former place of residence,
Miskolcz, on which occasion 280 crowns were taken from them to
prevent them from escaping over the frontier. This amount was
returned to them on the 17th of November, 1904, against a receipt.
Miss Schenker made request for the return of her ship ticket from
the Royal Hungarian ministry of the interior only at a later date,
whereupon the same was returned to her on the 6th of January, 1905.
Contrary to their allegation of having made repeated fruitless
appeals, the said ladies have made complaint neither to the ministry
of the interior nor to any other authority, and departed unmolested
for America in February, 1905.
The undersigned will communicate to his excellency the ambassador of
the United States of America the result of the remaining
investigations, which are still going on, as soon as the same will
be known to this office, and avails himself, etc.
For the minister.
