1September 1993 2 3 Reaction to German Immigration 4 5 .............edited by Marijan Salopek 6 7 =========================== 8 9 Letter from D. Henry Starr, (Starr's Point, Qu'Appelle Station, 10 Assiniboia, N.W.T.) to T. M. Daly, Minister of Interior, 17 July 11 1894. 12 13 My dear Sir, 14 The past year or two this part of the Territories, have had 15 quite a number of German Emigrants settled here, who have turned 16 out to be the very worst and lowest class of people under the 17 sun, and who are considered quite a nuisance, and ought to be 18 banished from the country otherwise they will be the means of 19 driving every respectable settler out of the place. They steal 20 and plunder whatever they can lay their hands on, and now, they 21 go about, under cover of the night, and cut and steal and carry 22 away Hay wherever they can get it and are not at all particular 23 to whom it belongs, and every settler is complaining about them. 24 I have had upwards of twenty tons of hay cut and taken away by 25 them, even close to my crop, and not more than one mile from my 26 residence, all done during the night. My object in writing is to 27 draw your attention to the facts, and to ascertain whether 28 anything can be done to put a stop to such doings, or must the 29 settlers submit to it. Possibly if the Police had authority to 30 be on the look out and watch their movements by night and by day, 31 and when caught to have them imprisoned, and made to pay damages, 32 it may have the effect of stopping their game both as with regard 33 to stealing wood as well as Hay. Something must be done, and 34 that very soon. 35 Kindly favour me with a reply immediately. 36 37 ------------------------ 38 Letter from Corp. D. Holmes, (North West Mounted Police, 39 Qu'Appelle) to The Officer Commanding B. Division (Regina), 14 40 August 1894. 41 42 Sir, 43 I have the honor to report as follows, re the enclosed 44 communication. I proceeded to Mr. D. Henry Starr's residence to- 45 day and, in reply to my questions he informed me, that he had no 46 reason to suspect the German settlers of being "the very worst 47 and lowest class of people under the sun" only from what he has 48 heard about them, having had no dealings with them himself. He 49 suspects them of taking his hay from what he has heard about them 50 and states, that he was informed, that a German was offering a 51 load of hay for sale in Qu'Appell (sic) Station which looked like what 52 his hay would be when cut. In regards to his statement "they 53 steal and plunder whatever they can lay their hands on," he is 54 unable to prove it as he admits he never had anything stolen 55 except hay which might just as likely be taken by any other class 56 of settlers, as the hay crop being a failure this year, no one 57 was particular where they obtained it. I visited a number of 58 settlers in the vicinity, none of whom had any complaints 59 regarding the conduct of those Germans beyond the fact that they 60 suspected them of having taken hay where they had no right to it; 61 but admitted that any other settler would do the same this year. 62 The nearest German settler is about seven miles West of Mr. 63 Starrs (sic) residence. 64 I might state, from my own experience with those Germans I 65 am not prepared to say they are any worse than other class of 66 settlers. A few cases have been brought against some of them for 67 wood stealing and they have been punished. 68 69 70 Source: Public Archives of Canada, RCMP Records, Section A-1, vol 97, 71 no. 587.