Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1907-09-14
.HINDUS DRIVEN OUT.
WERE FILLING WHITE MEMS
JOBS AT BELLINGHAM, WIN.
Hundreds Were Routed Out Of Town
Some Went North and Some Went
South-lt Is Feared Trouble Will
Cause international Complications
State May Have to Pay Damages.

While no information of an official
character has reached the state de-
partment as yet concerning the sum
mary and violent expulsion of Hindus
from Bellingham. Wash, recently
it is confidently expected that if the
facts are as reported in the press, Am
bassador Brice will soon be heard
from. The British government takes
pride above all things in protecting
the lives and property of its subjects,
so it is expected that as soon as the
British consular officer who is report
ed to be looking into the matter, has
completed his investigation and com
municated with the summer home of
the British ambassador at Intervale,
n. H, formal complaint will be lodged
with the state department.
The state department is always en-
barrassed in dealing with incidents of
this character, owing to the fact to
which the attention of congress has
often been called, that the national
government, and even the United
States courts, are not clothed with the
authority to enter the confines of a
state, even to protect foreigners in
their treaty rights.
All that the state department can do
in such a case as that at Bellingham
is to follow the well-worn precedents
established in Wyoming, Louisiana
California and elsewhere in cases
where foreigners have been mobbed or
killed. That is, the department in the
name of the president. may address
the governor of Washington, transmit
ting, perhaps, the complaint of the
British embassy, if there should be
one, and requesting him to take steps
to prevent a recurrence of the trouble
Such appeals have generally been eff
fective and doubtless would be in this
case. Probably the claims for dam
ages sustained by the individual Hin
dus who were beaten, or driven away
from lucrative employment, will be
preferred.
If the aggrieved individuals care t
do so they may bring civil actor
against the municipal authorities a
Bellingham in the local courts, jus
as the Japanese restaurant and batl
! house keepers have done in San Fran
cisco.
Report at Seattle.
Seattle. Wash.-Practically all o
the Hindus who were driven from Bel
lingham have sought new locations
ABOUT 40 reached Seattle next day.
large party lett for Los Angeles AM
other southern cities, and other
sought protection in British Columbia
Advices from 'Bellingham state tina
the town does not contain a solitar.
Hindu at this time.
Bernard Pelly, British vice consul il
Seattle, with jurisdiction over the Ell
tire state. has not yet been oficiall
notified of the hostilities toward thes
British subjects, demonstrated at Be
lingham.
Considering the method adopted b.
the people of Bellingham to these sui
jects of their community, surprise i
expressed here that the matter ha
not been referred even indirectly t
the British vice consul.
"All that 1 have heard of the Be
bingham incident is what read in tn
newspapers, said Mr.. Pelly
The party that arrived in Seattl
did not make charges of violenc
against the Bellingham people, bu
claim that they were given to under
stand that they should not renal
there in competition with white labo
in the mills.