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![handle is hein.usccsset/usconset32475 and id is 1 raw text is:
56TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. REPORT
Od Session. No. 270t.
CLAIM FOR GOODS, ETC., LOST BY FIRE AT ELLIS ISLAND,
NEW YORK.
FEBRuARY 5, 1901.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House and ordered
to be printed.
Mr. BOUTELL, of Illinois, from the Committee on Claims, submitted
the following
REPORT.
[To accompany H. R. 11659.]
The Committee on Claims, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 11659)
to pay claimants for goods or effects lost or destroyed by fire at Ellis
Island, New York, on June 15, 1897, beg leave to submit the following
report and recommend that said bill be passed without amendment:
On June 15, 1897, the immigrant station at Ellis Island, with con-
tents, was destroyed by fire. The baggage of immigrants who had
arrived there on the same day, or within a few days prior thereto, was
contained therein and lost. This baggage and property was being
hold by the Government, awaiting the determination of the rights of
the passengers to land, and also awaiting inspection of the baggage
and property by the custom-house officials of the United States, and
baggage checks were delivered to each claimant by the officials of the
Government. One hundred and five claims have been filed with the
Government officials for losses sustained by this fire, aggregating about
the sum of $22,000. Annexed hereto is a list of claimants, with the
amounts of their several claims, furnished the committee by the
Treasury Department, together with letters referring to the same.
The bill does not provide for the payment of these claims absolutely,
but authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to make a full investiga-
tion of all claims arising out of goods and personal effects lost or
destroyed by the fire while such goods and effects were under the
control and in the possession of the Government, and to determine the
amount justly due to each claimant; and when such several amounts
shall have been determined by said Secretary to pay the same.
This property so destroyed was not deposited or left voluntarily by
owners in the Government building, but was held there by the officials
of the Government pending the investigation of the right of the claim-
ants to enter this country and bring their property with them. It
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