Julius White to Count Limburg-Stirum, October 19, 1880
Mr. White to Count Limburg-Stirum.
The undersigned, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the United States of America, desires to present to his excellency Count Limburg-Stirum, minister in charge of the imperial foreign office, the following memorandum, in addition to that left with his excellency after the interview of the 15th instant in the case of Aaron Weill, now in prison in Alsace-Lorraine.
Weill returned to Alsace and remained there bona fide, having every reason to suppose that he was entitled to do so. His was not a case of ignorance of the law, but knowledge of the law as it was then supposed to be at this legation, for, amongst others, the following reasons:
- First. Because for nearly ten years all cases decided by the imperial foreign office were decided in accordance with the supposition that the treaties of 1868 apply to Alsace-Lorraine.
- Second. Because on the 20th March, 1873, Mr. von Bülow, then in charge of the imperial foreign office, in his note regarding the case of August Mély, distinctly confirmed this application of the treaty of 1868 to Alsace-Lorraine in that he approved the decree of the kreis-director of Saarburg, who had based his action of re-collecting a fine upon the application of the treaty.
- Third. That the kreis-director above referred to, in strict accordance with the opinion of Mr. von Billow, in a communication dated 2d March, 1877, wrote as follows: “To your communication of the 27th ultimo I respectfully reply that the treaty concluded between Germany and America on the 22d February, 1868, applies to all persons emigrating to America and returning thence who are born in Alsace-Lorraine.”
This legation, then, had every reason to suppose that Weill came under the action of the treaty of 1868, and when he asked this legation what he should do he was virtually informed, in accordance with the above state of things, that the treaty of 1868 applied to him. The fault, therefore, as his excellency will see, is not his ignorance of the law, but his knowledge of it as it was then understood.
In view of these facts, and the additional fact that no notice whatever was given by the imperial government which enabled this legation to warn Germans, born in Alsace-Lorraine, who had acquired American citizenship, from returning, the undersigned would again express the earnest hope that, pending negotiations between the two governments regarding the main questions at issue, Weill may be released.
The undersigned avails himself, &c.,