GERMANY. 



419 



The ordinance directed that all people of Polish 

 language not born in German territory should 

 leave the empire. This act was an invasion 

 of the powers of the Bundesrath, and a breach 

 of international law and comity. Russia and 

 Austria, however, raised no protest ; and, 

 though severely attacked in the Reichstag, 

 Prince Bismarck asserted that the matter lay 

 within the powers of the Prussian Grown. All 

 the Jewish intermediaries in the grain-trade, 

 the only class speaking both Russian and Ger- 

 man, received notice to leave. Some cities 

 were stripped of a fourth of their inhabitants, 

 and trade and industry were paralyzed. The 

 exiled persons belonged to all classes, the great 

 majority being artisans and laborers. Before 

 Sept. 1, as many as 20,000 persons, includ- 

 ing 5,000 Jews, were said to have been sent 

 back to Russia and Austria from the east- 

 ern provinces of Prussia. By the middle of 

 November the number banished was 35,000. 

 Many of them were prosperous residents who 

 had long been settled on Prussian soil. The 

 motives for the expulsions were twofold : to 

 protect the native laborers and business-men 

 from the competition of the immigrants ; and 

 to prevent the increase of the Polish element, 

 and the consequent spread of political disaffec- 

 tion. There were many cases of extreme hard- 

 ship. Rich and poor, nobles and peasants, 

 persons domiciled forty years in Prussia, and 

 knowing no language but German, persons 

 having English and French naturalization cer- 

 tificates and passports, persons lying on sick- 

 beds, women about to be confined, all fell un- 

 der the inexorable edict aflike. Houses, lands, 

 stock, and plant were sacrificed in hasty sales. 

 In November there were reported to be 1,500 

 persons encamped on the Russian frontier, 

 whom the Russian authorities refused to re- 

 ceive because they had no papers proving them 

 to be subjects of the Czar. Many Poles who 

 had served in the Prussian army, and were on 

 the Landwehr lists, were classed as aliens. The 

 expulsions took place in accordance with a se- 

 ; cret understanding with the Russian Govern- 

 ment, which raised no objections. In Austria 

 great indignation was felt. About 2,000 of 

 the exiles were Austrian Poles. Yet Count 

 Kalnoky in the Delegations minimized and 

 palliated the proceedings, and said that he 

 could not interfere with the operation of Prus- 

 sian ^municipal law. In Galicia the exiles were 

 received by committees that looked after their 

 relief and aided them in obtaining homes and 

 occupation. 



Expulsion of Americans. While the barbarous 

 wholesale riddance of alien Jewish and Catho- 

 lic Poles was proceeding, the German authori- 

 ties began to order German Americans to leave 

 Germany. A number of Americans on the isl- 

 and of Fohr, near Kiel, received a notice to 

 quit, which was recalled, and then renewed, 

 < and again suspended in the beginning of De- 

 j cember upon the intervention of Minister Pen- 

 : dleton. Two other naturalized Americans, stay- 



ing at the Prussian seaport of Hadersleben, 

 were ordered to leave Germany about the 

 same time. 



The Fiji Controversy. A dispute with England, 

 with respect to land-titles acquired by Ger- 

 mans in the Fiji Islands, dates from the annex- 

 ation of the islands by Great Britain in 1874. 

 Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of New South 

 Wales at the time, after proclaiming British 

 sovereignty, issued a statute of limitations, an- 

 nulling all debts and contracts existing before 

 1871. The German consul protested that his 

 countrymen had invested much capital, espe- 

 cially in land, before that date. The German 

 Government felt no anxiety respecting the 

 rights of Germans, until Lords Derby and Car- 

 narvon declared that it was necessary to im- 

 pose limits to claims against the former Fiji 

 Government. In 1875 all claims antedating 

 the British occupation were barred by a new 

 ordinance, which Herr von Billow said seemed 

 " very much like a spoliation " of German in- 

 terests. About three years later Count Mtin- 

 ster pressed for the appointment of a mixed 

 commission to determine titles of possession. 

 The German investments were very large, 

 those of a single firm amounting to $625,000. 

 Sir Arthur Gordon promised to hasten the 

 inquiry into land-claims, but the German au- 

 thorities complained that nothing was done, 

 and in 1882 Count Hatzfeldt urged the British 

 Government to bring the matter to a conclu- 

 sion. Lord Granville ordered an examination 

 of the German claims ; yet a year later Count 

 Hatzfeldt again demanded that the well-ac- 

 quired rights of Germans should be recognized, 

 and that they should not be deprived of prop- 

 erty lawfully acquired before the British an- 

 nexation, without judicial sentence. The Brit- 

 ish Colonial Office at first expressed a willing- 

 ness to agree to a commission under reserva- 

 tions, but finally declared it impossible, as 

 matters stood, to acquiesce in the proposal. 

 Count Munster replied that it was the decision 

 of the British Government that was wanted, 

 not the views of the Colonial Office. In De- 

 cember, 1883, Count Munster was again in- 

 structed to request a speedy answer to the 

 proposal of a mixed commission, which was 

 all the more needed, inasmuch as German 

 claims had been disallowed without sufficient 

 reason. In January, 1884, Lord Granville re- 

 fused to entertain the proposal, giving his rea- 

 sons in a memorandum. In April the Ger- 

 man ambassador, in an urgent note, accom- 

 panied by a counter -memorandum, renewed 

 the request. Lord Granville expressed a desire 

 to oblige the German Government, but Lord 

 Derby, the Colonial Minister, declared that it 

 would be difficult to reverse previous acts of the 

 Fiji Government in favor of Germans without 

 extending the same privilege to Englishmen 

 and Americans. The German Chancellor re- 

 fused to have the claims of Germans first sub- 

 mitted to the British Government to examine 

 whether they might be laid before a commis- 



