Speech #520048890

The Senator from Minnesota and also the Senator from Colorado have taken occasion to reiterate what no one denies that a Government is not obliged. when refusing to receive a minister as persona non grate. to give any reason for its refusal. That is entirely true. but it is equally true and equally well recognized by the authorities and by the practice of governments on this subject that if the government rejecting a minister as persona non grata takes occasion to give reasons for the rejection. those reasons then become the proper and legitimate and necessary subjects of discussion between the goveinments of the two countries. and when the reason given was. as in this case. that the person accredited as minister had uttered language in the Senate of the United States which was offensive to the foreign government. and moreover had voted for a law of his own country which is offensive to the foreign government. it was absolutely incumbent upon this Government. if it had any regard for its own honor and its own dignityand its own selfrespect. to at once take issue in a direct. positive. unequivocal. and formal manner with the government which had undertaken to reject a minister upon those grounds. Moreover. it was due in this case as an act of justice to the per. son who had been selected not at his own request. but by reason of the free. unbiased choice of the President. to represent this country in China. to place before the Chinese Government the fact that of all the men in the United States Senate who had spoken and had voted upon the subject of Chinese exclusion. Mr. Blair was the last Senator of all to be rejected on account of his sentiments or his utterances or his votes upon the question of Chinese exclusion. Mr. President. this Government did nothing of the kind.