Ambassador Storer
to the Secretary of State.
American Embassy,
Vienna, October 7,
1905.
No. 274.]Sir: I have the honor to report that, following
the Department’s instructions numbered 165 and 170, bearing date,
respectively, 23d and 28th of June, 1905, I conveyed formally to the
ministry of foreign affairs the views therein expressed in regard to the
action of the Hungarian Government as to the traffic in emigration and
the treatment by it given to the International Mercantile Marine
Company, otherwise known as the American Line, in connection with the
Société Anonyme de Navigation Beige-Américaine, both in unjustifiably
and arbitrarily interfering by its official agents in the traffic of
these steamship lines and in unjustly discriminating against them by
refusing a reply to the demands for a license formally made by these
companies under the terms of law.
For a better understanding of the matter I venture to inclose a copy of
my official letter of complaint, addressed to Mr. de Mérey,
undersecretary of foreign affairs, who was acting minister at the
time.
I have the honor to inclose a copy and a translation of the full and
formal answer of the minister of foreign affairs, which, covering as it
does the whole principle involved, gives evidence that the matter has
been carefully considered and fully weighed by the Hungarian Government.
It will be seen that the broad ground is taken that no traffic monopoly
can be said to be created by the arrangement with the Cunard Company,
because the Hungarian Government has the right to issue a license to do
similar business to any other line than the
[Page 59]
Cunard whenever it may see fit to do so. Further,
that as an inherent government right it is for the Hungarian Government
to issue such license or withhold it, as it sees fit. Further, that the
complaints contained in the letters of the counsel of the International
Mercantile Marine Company, which I was instructed to transmit to the
foreign office, that no answer had been given by the Hungarian
Government to the applications for a license, is specifically denied;
and the dates are given of the answers of the Hungarian Government to
the communications of that company.
* * * * * * *
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure
1.—Translation.]
Ambassador Storer to the Minister of
Foreign Affairs.
American Embassy,
Vienna, July 13,
1905.
Your Excellency: I have the honor to bring
to your excellency’s attention and to that of the Royal Hungarian
Government the complaint of the International Mercantile Marine
Company that unjust discriminations and privileges are accorded by
the Royal Hungarian Government to other foreign and competing
corporations engaged in the same business, and are refused to the
company in question. The International Mercantile Marine Company is
an American corporation, and is the owner of two large transatlantic
steamers, the Finland and the Kronland, now engaged in the transportation
of passengers from Europe to the United States, acting in connection
with a Belgian corporation La Société Anonyme de Navigation
Belge-Américaine, and performing a common service therewith in the
transportation of passengers.
I have had the honor to address to His Excellency Count Goluchowski
on several previous occasions complaints on behalf of this common
service generally known as the “American Line” (and under that name
incorporated as an American corporation) of the treatment their
agents have received on the part of the officials of the Royal
Hungarian Government, and in particular have called his excellency’s
attention to numerous cases where travelers intending to make the
voyage to America by one or other of the vessels of this line,
having already purchased tickets, have been prevented from leaving
Hungary by the route they had selected and paid for.
In many instances such tickets have been forcibly taken from these
travelers by the Hungarian authorities, and on some occasions, it is
alleged, that all the money in their possession has also been
confiscated, and their journey either absolutely prevented or very
much delayed under circumstances of great expense and hardship to
individuals.
In all such cases, so far as any reason is given or can be
discovered, it is on account of the desire and intention of the
Hungarian Government to force all passenger travel from the Royal
dominions to pass by Fiume, and to give an entire monoply of such
international passenger traffic to the Cunard Company, a British
corporation, to the exclusion of all other competing companies of
any and all nations. Applications for a license or permission to
carry on business at Fiume on behalf of these two American
corporations have received no attention or reply whatever from the
Royal Hungarian Government.
I beg to allude on this general subject to my previous letters to His
Excellency Count Goluchowski, Nos. 117, 123, 124, 125, 128, 131, and
149, all of which relate to instances of this course of conduct on
the part of the Royal Hungarian officials.
Renewed complaints having been made to my government, I have received
instructions to submit to your excellency copies of the letters of
the International Mercantile Marine Company and the American Line
giving in detail the grounds of complaint and instances of this
arbitrary and unjust action on the part of the Royal Hungarian
officials, and such copies I have the honor to inclose herewith.
I am instructed to make urgent representation to your excellency to
the end that the wrongs and discriminations practiced against this
highly considered and respected American corporation, the
International Mercantile Marine Company and its steamers, apparently
in favor of a competing British company may be discontinued by the
officials of the Royal Hungarian Government.
While it is not the usage of my Government to lend its assistance to
American citizens in procuring licenses or concessions from foreign
Governments the present case appears to be an
[Page 60]
exceptional one and an entire departure from
the spirit of just and fair dealing and friendly feeling which has
for so many years marked commercial intercourse between the United
States and the Imperial and Royal Dominions, and I am therefore
instructed to invoke your excellency’s intervention with the Royal
Hungarian Government in order that the same privileges and
opportunities may be accorded by that Government to steamers of the
American Line in the matter of licenses and opportunity of service
as are accorded to the vesesls of any other line of steamers of any
other country.
I take, etc.,
[Inclosure
2—Translation.]
The Minister of Foreign
Affairs to Ambassador Storer.
Imperial and Royal Ministery of Foreign
Affairs,
Vienna, September 11,
1905.
Referring to the esteemed note of July 13, 1905, the undersigned,
after having had an interchange of views with the Royal Hungarian
ministry of the interior, has the honor to inform his excellency the
ambassador of the United States of America, Mr. Bellamy Storer, that
the complaints of the International Mercantile Marine Company and
the American Line seem to be based on an erroneous interpretation of
the Hungarian emigration bill and of paragraph 7 of this law in
particular.
According to this paragraph those companies who wish to engage in the
transportation of emigrants must obtain beforehand the permission of
the ministry of the interior to this end. By such a permission
(which the ministry of the interior can grant to native citizens or
to foreigners, but without being under obligation to do so) the
business for the transportation of emigrants received the character
of a licensed business. Since, as a matter of course, neither
citizens of this country nor foreigners are entitled to demand as a
right the conferring of a license, there can not be seen, in the
granting of a license for the transportation of emigrants to the
Cunard Steamship Company and in the refusal to grant such a license
to the International Mercantile Marine Company and to the American
Line a discrimination in favor of the first-named company and
against the last-mentioned companies.
Furthermore, the two said American corporations are not entitled to
make complaints with regard to the granting of a license to the
Cunard Steamship Company and to infer from this granting an
analogous right for themselves, as they have been placed on the same
basis as the home navigation companies, which did not obtain a
license for the transportation of emigrants. With this explanation
of the legal side of the question the undersigned thinks to have
rectified the fundamental error which has crept into the judgment of
this case, and begs to pass to the discussion of the several details
of the esteemed note above referred to.
First of all it is not correct that the communications of the
American line have not been answered. The undersigned, to whom an
opportunity was offered to take an insight into the correspondence
on this subject of the Royal Hungarian ministry of the interior with
the said navigation company, was able to ascertain that the letters
of the American line of the 27th and 28th July and 14th October,
1904, were answered on the 15th of November, 1904. A reply to the
communication of December 8, 1904, was sent on the 17th of December,
1904, and the application of January 26, 1905, was answered on
February 11, 1905.
Likewise it is untrue that a monopoly for the transportation of
Hungarian emigrants was given to the Cunard Steamship Company by
granting the license. On the contrary, the Hungarian Government is
at any time in a position to give licenses also to other
transportation companies if it be thought necessary, and in case the
issuance of the license in question to other companies should become
necessary will consider the application of the American line with
the same favor as those of other transportation companies, of course
on the supposition that the American line submits to every point of
the stipulations of the Hungarian Article IV of the law of 1903.
It is, however, the effort of the Hungarian Government to concentrate
the emigration as far as possible at Fiume, as by this means only
can an effective supervision and control of emigration be carried
through, and because the policy of the transportation
(verkehrspolitische) and economical interests of Hungary require
it.
As to the cases of complaint enumerated in the list (being an
inclosure of the above-mentioned esteemed communication) each one
will be examined separately and conscientiously and the result
communicated to his excellency the American ambassador.
Finally, the undersigned may be allowed to make the following remarks
to the last paragraph of the repeatedly mentioned communication.
During the first five months of 1905 there emigrated from Hungary
(not including Croatia and Slavonia) 97,583 persons to the
trans-Atlantic countries. Of this number 18,250 traveled on steamers
of the Cunard Line. The other 79,333 emigrants have taken the
steamers of those companies which, as far as known to this office,
are combined without exception to the
[Page 61]
International Mercantile Marine Company or
united with it and which at the present have no license in Hungary.
The undersigned believes that in good conscience he can leave it to
the wise judgment of his excellency the American ambassador to
decide whether under these circumstances the assertion that the
officials of the Hungarian Government act unfairly and partially
toward the unlicensed companies is correct.
Furthermore, the undersigned begs to call the attention of his
excellency the American ambassador to the circumstance that the
dimensions which the emigration from Hungary to the United States
has taken produces not only great alarm in Hungary, but it is
discussed also in the United States in a way which shows great
annoyance. The press of the Union discusses this immigration in a
tone which unfortunately is very unjust and sometimes hostile, and
the American legislation has followed for some years past an
undeniable tendency to increase the severity of immigration
regulations.
As the granting of a license to the American line and to a
corporation like the International Mercantile Marine Company, which
has so many branches and which is united with a great number of
other companies, would probably raise the Hungarian emigration to an
immeasurable degree, it is difficult to reconcile the present demand
of the American Government with the attitude followed up to the
present by the American legislation and what is expected also to be
followed in the future.
On the other hand, it is clear that the Hungarian Government can not
be inclined to contribute to the boundless promotion of emigration
by granting new licenses at a moment at which the public opinion of
the United States looks with an unfavorable eye upon the emigration
from Hungary and when the same might be threatened by an aggravation
of American immigration regulations.
Therefore the undersigned hopes that his excellency the American
ambassador will weigh considerately the motives by which the Royal
Hungarian Government has been guided in its present policy of
granting licenses, and will come to the conclusion after
consideration of the above said that the reproach made to the
Hungarian Government that in the present matter it has allowed
itself not to be guided by that spirit of just and friendly feeling
which has for so many years marked commercial intercourse between
Austria-Hungary and the United States is in every respect
unjustified.
The undersigned avails, etc.,
