Mr. White to Mr. Bay.
Berlin, February 7, 1902.
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that on the 28th ultimo the embassy intervened in behalf of one Peter Mikolainis, to the end that he might be permitted to remain in Prussia until March 15 next, and that a note has to-day been received from the imperial foreign office in which it is stated that, to its regret, the Royal Prussian Government is not in a position to allow him to do so.
Kikolainis was born in Russia, in 1868, and emigrated to the United States in 1896. He was naturalized as a citizen in Luzerne County, Pa., on October 7, 1901, and he holds a passport issued to him by the Department of State last October. According to his own story, he left the United States in November and went to Tilsit, Prussia, near the Russian frontier, where he at once proceeded to establish himself in the bookselling business, his stock consisting of religious and scientific books printed in the Lithuanian language, imported from the United States. In January he was arrested, his books attached, and his premises searched, and an order served upon him to leave Prussian territory within forty-eight hours.
In its note the foreign office states that Mikolainis had lived in Tilsit from 1893 to 1896, and that during that time he was employed in a publishing house, and was engaged in the secret importation of forbidden books into Russia; that upon the nature of his business and his connection with certain agitators becoming known, he left Tilsit for the purpose of evading observation; that upon his return from America he engaged an apartment under an assumed name, resumed his [Page 451] relations with the agitators in question, and began again to act as he had done before; and, further, that the books found in his possession were by no means of a “harmless” character. Under the circumstances the Prussian Government has every reason to consider him an objectionable foreigner.
It is evident that Mikolainis, who remained in the United States merely long enough to become naturalized as a citizen, and who then at once returned to the scene of his former activity, has merely sought to make a convenience of his American nationality.
I am, etc.,