Speech #660040157

It should be noted in this connection that if the dispute is claimed by either party and is found by the council to be a matter which by international law is solely within the domestic jurisdiction of that party. the council is prohibited from making any recommendations as to its settlement. Domestic matters are excluded from the jurisdiction of the league. or action either by the council or assembly. Immigration. by all text writers on international law and by all Governments. has been considered and treated solely as a domestic question. In the absence of treaties. the municipal law of the country determines absolutely the admission of foreign citizens into the country. This has never been disputed. Vattel. the great authority upon international law. clearly states the law upon this subject. as follows: It is an accepted maxim of international law that every sovereign nation has the power as inherent in sovereignty and essential to selfpreservation to forbid the entrance of foreigners within its dominions .ur to admit them only in such cases and upon such conditions as it may see fit to prescribe. The Supreme Court of the United States in the Chinese exclusion case held that the power of the Government of the United States to exclude foreigners from the country whenever in its judgment the public interest required such exclusion has been asserted in repeated instances and can neither be granted away nor restrained by treaty. Secretary of State Frelinghuysen in 1882 stated in a letter to Mr. Stillman: This Government can not contest the right of foreign Governments to exclude on police or other grounds American citizens from their shores. The only way that immigration into this country could ever go to the league for consideration or action would be in a dispute regarding the interpretation of a treaty that we made with some nation upon that question. Without the existence of such a treaty the league is debarred from all ju risdiction. We have full power to revoke any treaty made involving immigration. Thus it is left for us to determine whether this question shall ever receive consideration by the league. Mr.