Mr. Gresham to Baron Saurma.
Washington, January 26, 1895.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of December 17, 1894, calling attention to certain provisions of the quarantine and immigration laws and regulations of the United [Page 513] States which, in the opinion of your Government, are not consistent with the principles of international law, nor with any treaty between this Government and the German Empire. The laws and regulations against which your Government’s objections are especially directed are:
- (1)
- The provisions of the quarantine act of February 15, 1893, and the regulations made in pursuance of it, which require the consular or medical officer of the United States stationed in a foreign port to inspect vessels of all nationalities departing for the United States, and the crews, passengers, and cargoes.
- (2)
- The provisions of the same act and regulations which empower the consular or medical officer to order the disinfection of such vessels, and in other respects to regulate their internal condition and arrangement, before granting the bill of health required for the entry of the vessel in a port of the United States.
- (3)
- The provisions of the immigration act of March 3, 1893, which require that the master and surgeon of any vessel carrying immigrants to the United States shall present to the American consular officer at the port of departure descriptive lists of the immigrants, verified by the oaths of the master and surgeon taken before such officer.
Your Government regards the exercise of these administrative functions by our consular and medical officers in Germany in connection with ships that are not American as unauthorized and in disregard of its sovereignty.
The United States have an extensive seaboard open on both oceans to the introduction of infectious and contagious diseases from Europe and Asia and Central and South America. To avert this danger a rigid system of maritime sanitation has been provided. It is set forth and explained in a pamphlet published by the Treasury Department. I append a copy for your examination. The regulations to be observed at ports of the United States are printed on pages 24 and following. It will be seen that they provide for the inspection, quarantine, and disinfection of vessels after arrival at American ports, but before entry and discharge of passengers, cargo, and crew.
All vessels are required to be inspected before entry in order that it may be known on arrival whether or not they are in fit sanitary condition to enter our ports. The conditions which require detention in quarantine are specified. It will be noticed that compliance with the regulations to be observed in foreign ports may, and in practice often does, avert or shorten quarantine at the port of arrival; and the same is true in regard to disinfection.
The United States have in operation in their own jurisdiction a complete and adequate system of safeguards against the introduction of disease from foreign countries, and are not dependent upon precautions taken abroad; but it has been our policy to effect this purpose of keeping out disease with as little hindrance as possible to commercial intercourse with foreign countries, and with the least inconvenience and expense to incoming ships. To this end provision has been made for taking measures at the port of departure which will enable a vessel to enter our ports with an authentic sanitary record, and often to escape the more burdensome of our domestic requirements. Failure to comply with these regulations at foreign ports subjects the vessel on arrival here to the full rigor of our domestic quarantine system.
The authority given by the act of March 3, 1893, to consular officers to administer oaths to the masters and surgeons of vessels carrying immigrants to the United States was intended to serve the same beneficial purpose by preventing the embarkation of immigrants prohibited [Page 514] by law from coming to the United States, and by facilitating the examination at the port of arrival of the immigrants, who are confined at the vessel’s expense until their right to land is ascertained. A copy of this act and of the regulations made under it is inclosed for your perusal.
The acts of the United States consular and medical officers, of which your Government now speaks, are performed primarily in the interest of the vessels, many of which are German, and of foreign trade. They have been efficiently aided by the shipowners, who avail themselves of the opportunity offered them to avoid delays and impediments to their business in our ports. This alternative opportunity is offered, and the necessary agencies for taking advantage of it are provided in a spirit of cooperation and comity which it was expected would be appreciated, and in furtherance of mutually beneficial commercial intercourse which we, no less earnestly than any foreign nation, desire to maintain. This Government does not claim that under any treaty or the rules of international law it can authorize its officers to inspect foreign vessels or order their disinfection in German ports, or to administer oaths to officers of foreign ships within the jurisdiction of the German Empire. The operation of the sanitary and immigration system of the United States in a foreign port is conditioned upon the consent of the government having jurisdiction of the port. Prior to the receipt of your protest the consent of your Government was reasonably assumed, because these provisions were beneficial to your carrying trade and commercial interests. If the Imperial Government is unwilling that consular and medical officers of the United States shall continue to execute these laws and regulations in German ports upon vessels which are not American, steps will be taken to comply with its wishes, leaving foreign vessels coming to the United States from German ports subject to the sanitary provisions in force at the port of arrival and the prescribed consequences.
I will add for the information of your Government that no medical officers have been stationed in German ports within the last twelve months for the purpose of executing our quarantine and immigration laws and regulations. These duties have been performed by consular officers alone, and they are forbidden to receive any personal compensation whatever for their services. The actual expense of the inspection or disinfection and a moderate official fee, which goes into the Treasury of the United States, form the total of direct expense thus incurred by vessels in foreign ports.
Accept, etc.,