Baron Fava to Mr. Hay.
Washington, November 4, 1899.
Mr. Secretary of State: I thank your excellency for your courtesy in sending me, as an inclosure to your note of the 2d instant, the advance sheets of the Chevalier Rossi’s examination before the United States Industrial Commission.
It appears from these sheets that Mr. Farquhar, chairman of the aforesaid commission, put, among others, the following questions to the head of the Italian emigration bureau on Ellis Island:
Are you aware that there is testimony of substantial and trustworthy witnesses before Congressional committees and our commission affirming that officers in Italy encourage the padrone system in this country, and that they are sharers in its profits?
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and that officers of the Italian Government, however small or great, send contract laborers to this country, and that the working agency in Italy and the working agency in New York are sharers in the benefits of this system?
His excellency the minister of foreign affairs of Italy having been duly informed of these charges taken up and repeated by the chairman, now instructs me to call your excellency’s serious attention, as I hereby have the honor to do, to the assertions made by Mr. Farquhar, and to beg you to be pleased to cause that gentleman to be called upon to furnish proof of the aforesaid charges, which he emphatically stated were made by trustworthy witnesses.
If the Government of the King is credibly informed that among its officers there are any who have been guilty of such acts, that will be sufficient to cause the guilty parties to receive exemplary punishment, and to cause the royal authorities to take steps to prevent this serious abuse from being repeated in future. On the other hand, if, as is more probable, the assertion shall appear not to be corroborated by irrefragable proof, the United States Government can not do otherwise than admit that His Majesty’s Government has the right to ask that Mr. Farquhar may receive, officially, a severe admonition for his reckless language, which was so lacking in the regard due to the Government and the officers of a foreign state.
Awaiting information as to the steps which I doubt not your excellency will be pleased to take in this matter in order that I may communicate such information to His Excellency the Marquis Visconti Venosta, I avail myself of this additional occasion to offer you, Mr. Secretary of State, the assurances of my highest consideration.