No. 324.] RESTRICTIONS IMPOSED ON JEWS. [See Foreign Relations, 1893, pp. 638, 651, 669.] Mr. Terrell to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, Constantinople, October 16, 1894. (Received November 5.) SIR: I have the honor to inform you that the Porte admits that instructions have long ago been given to Turkish consuls in America not to visa the passports of Jews who visit Jerusalem for a longer stay than ninety days. This has led to the seizure and detention of the bag. gage of that sect at Jaffa, to secure their return within the time allowed, as will be seen from the inclosed dispatch from Consul Wallace at Jerusalem of the 3d instant to the consul-general at Constantinople. Mr. Wallace also, as you will see, reports cases of extortion by Turkish officers, presumably, from the facts given, with the knowledge of the local governor. My instructions to the consul-general look to a correction of this evil. I have remonstrated with the foreign minister on the seizure and detention of baggage, and notified him of my belief that his officials were levying blackmail at Jaffa. The reason given for the avowed policy of preventing the settlement of Jews in Jerusalem in large numbers was stated with much seriousness by His Excellency Said Pasha as follows: We believe that Jesus Christ was a great prophet, and if the Jews get control of Jerusalem they will steal the sepulcher of Christ and destroy everything that can remind people of him. This feature of the interview was unexpected. I informed the Porte that the restriction on the right of American Jews to remain so short a period was a hardship about which I might have occasion to express myself hereafter. I did not go further because it may be safely assumed that, in the absence of all commerce there, a Jew who goes to stay over ninety days goes to remain, and besides, I can obtain your instructions by the time I can receive further details of extortion by the Turks at Jaffa. I have, etc., [Inclosure 1 in No. 324.] A. W. TERRELL. No. 28.] Mr. Wallace to Mr. Short. CONSULATE OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I desire to call your attention to a condition of affairs existing at the seaport of Jaffa and here at Jerusalem. Since assuming the duties of this consulate complaints have been from time to time made to me by incoming Jewish-American citizens that they are unnecessarily annoyed and put to expense by the Turkish officials at Jaffa when attempting to disembark. Tourists and persons coming here to visit or reside for an indefinite time are subject to the annoyance of having their baggage delayed at the custom-house for longer than is necessary. In many cases some official at Jaffa demands passports, and will not allow parties to enter till they deliver their passports to him. Then the one who has taken them will not return them to the owners until some money in the nature of a bribe is given. I have on two separate occasions appealed to the governor of Jerusalem in person, demanding by what authority such actions are taken. Promises have been made me that the matter will be looked into and the offenders punished. In no case am I certain that the promise has been fulfilled. On last Friday, September 28 ultimo, nine persons, Jews, holding passports properly visaed by the Ottoman consul at New York, were prohibited from landing at Jaffa till they deposited a guaranty that they would leave the country inside of thirty days. One man, in company with his wife, landed, but had to deposit a sum of 6 napoleons. His baggage was retained at Jaffa. This morning he appealed to me to know what to do. His passport was taken from him at the depot at Jerusalem as soon as he stepped off the train, and was not returned. I immediately called upon the governor and asked him by whose authority such things are done. His reply was he knew nothing about it, but he would inquire, and at least would order the delivery of the baggage to the owners. Something more than this should be done or the indignity will be repeated. I therefore beg of you to lay the matter before the higher authorities at Constantinople, and inform me what further steps to take in the maintaining of treaty rights. I have done all in my power. These indignities offered our citizens on landing at Jaffa and Jerusalem are a disgrace, and should be immediately and summarily put a stop to. Any delay on our part in taking note of them will but aggravate the indignity. Will you kindly inform me also if the Ottoman consuls in America have authority to say in their visa on a passport that the privilege to remain in the Turkish dominions is limited to thirty or ninety days or to any period? Passports are often so visaed. Shall the bearer of a passport so visaed be compelled to obey it? Hoping some immediate action toward remedying these evils will be taken, I remain, etc., [Inclosure 2 in No. 324.] EDWIN S. WALLACE. No. 53.] Mr. Terrell to Mr. Short. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: Your No. 72, of October 15, has just been received, inclosing copy of Consul Wallace's dispatch No. 28, of the 3d instant, relating to the seizure of the baggage of Jews by Turkish officials. These men, being American citizens, are entitled to our protection, and you will instruct Consul Wallace to protest in every instance when the baggage of an American citizen is detained after examination at the customhouse, and to report every case of extortion by Turkish officials, with name of the parties and date, and to forward when practicable the affidavit of the party. Also to report each instance under oath of the party when baggage is detained or other indignity practiced. It is the policy of the Turks to forbid the permanent settlement in large numbers of Jews, but as tourists they must receive full protection as American citizens. On the receipt of satisfactory evidence that the governor retains officials after he is informed that they receive bribes or practice extor tions, I will demand, and doubt not that I will effect, his removal. The evidence should be in the shape of affidavits to accompany the consul's report. I have, etc., No. 266.] A. W. TERRell. Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, November 7, 1894. SIR: Your dispatch No. 324, of the 16th ultimo, relative to the harsh treatment of Jews temporarily resorting to Jerusalem, has been received. The restriction of the sojourn of visiting Jews in the ancient capital of their race has been enforced for several years past. Mr. Straus, in his No. 57, of January 28, 1888, touches upon the ostensible reasons for this limitation, which was originally fixed at one month and was about that time prolonged to three months. Extended correspondence in regard to the effect of this measure upon American Jews going to Jerusalem is printed in the second volume of Foreign Relations for 1888. The arbitrary interferences with this class of voyagers which your dispatch reports, such as the detention of their personal effects at Jaffa in order to make their prolonged sojourn in Judea impossible or difficult, should properly call forth urgent remonstrance in the event of injuring any citizen of the United States; and should your surmise that the intolerant course of the Turkish officials in that quarter is prompted by corrupt motives be verified, those unworthy agents will doubtless be severely rebuked by the high authority of the Porte itself-which can not be supposed to countenance extortion in any form. As regards the duration of the period during which law-abiding American citizens of the Jewish faith may propose to visit Jerusalem, this Government neither draws nor admits any presumption of intended permanent domicile there from the mere fact of resorting thither. Abandonment of American residence and consequent loss of the right of protection due to bona fide citizens can only be determined by the facts of each case as it may arise. As the records of your legation and of the consulate at Jerusalem will show, this Department has heretofore had occasion to deal with such cases on the facts, and has not hesitated to withdraw protection when permanent domicile in Judea was shown without evident intent to return to this country. I am, etc., W. Q. GRESHAM. STATUS AND TREATMENT IN TURKEY OF NATURALIZED AMERICANS OF TURKISH ORIGIN. [See Foreign Relations, 1893, pp. 683, 684, 685, 692, 699, 702, 703, 705, 706, 708, 709, 710, 711, 713, 715.] Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, In an interview with the minister of Turkey to-day he assured me positively that the Turkish Government has not made and will not make arrests except so far as necessary to effect deportation. If imprisonments occur otherwise you will insist on fulfillment of this promise. GRESHAM. No. 137.] Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 9, 1894. SIR: I have received your dispatch No. 140, of the 17th of December last, reporting an interview with the minister for foreign affairs on the preceding day, in relation to the treatment of naturalized citizens of the United States of Turkish origin when returning to Turkey, and in particular to the case of Garabed Kevorkian, an agent at Marsovan of the Foreign Christian Missionary Society of Cincinnati. You state that Kevorkian declared his intention to become a citizen of the United States before 1869. In a previous dispatch, No. 80, of October 12, 1893,1 you state that Kevorkian "was naturalized without the consent of the Sultan, long after the Turkish law of 1869, but made his declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States before that date." The date of his naturalization, however, is not given. It is desired that you ascertain the facts in regard to his naturalization and communicate them to the Department. It is, however, to be observed that the Turkish Government, as you report in the dispatch now under consideration, recognized his American citizenship when he returned to Turkey, and that he has since been residing there under that recognition. While this circumstance does not relieve this Government of the duty of informing itself of the facts of his naturalization, it materially affects the action of the Turkish authorities in regard to his arrest and detention. In the case of Sirope Gurdjian, a citizen of the United States of Turkish origin, who was naturalized in 1874, and who was charged in 1890 with participating in the proceedings of an Armenian revolutionary committee, the seal of which he was alleged to have made, the minister for foreign affairs acknowledged the irregularity of his arrest by the Ottoman authorities without the assistance of a consular representative of the United States, and promised that "the agent guilty of the irregular acts referred to should be punished." The views of the Department in that case you will find set forth in an instruction, No. 142, of December 22, 1890, to Mr. Hirsch, then our minister at Constantinople. You will observe that the Department, in discussing the question of Mr. Gurdjian's trial on the charges made against him, then instructed Mr. Hirsch as follows: If upon further investigation you should be of opinion that the facts presented do not constitute a violation of any specific statutory provision, but that Mr. Gurdjian has been guilty of culpable acts affecting the Ottoman Government, for the punishment of which our legislation is defective, it will be necessary to inform him that the protection of the United States can not be extended so as to enable him to continue his residence in the Ottoman dominions. In the case of the Armenians lately charged with seditious acts in Turkey, this Government has clearly manifested its purpose not to permit their claim of American citizenship to be invoked as a bar to their expulsion. It is hoped that the Ottoman Government will not be disposed to depart from the course it has heretofore observed and raise other questions that may tend to complicate and embarrass the relations now subsisting between the two countries. In reading your dispatch, I regret to find that in your conference with the minister for foreign affairs you introduce matters which were hardly pertinent to the object of your interview. The distinctions you drew between the Constitution of the United States and the British constitution were not only unnecessary but inaccurate. Naturalization is neither conferred nor regulated by the Constitution of the United States, nor is it true that in Great Britain "the Queen and not the constitution, is sovereign." The Department specially regrets your saying to the minister for foreign affairs: "If your excellency believes it would accomplish good, I will go yonder to your Padishah (the Sultan) and tell him that unless he heeds the advice of his ministers, who are trying to save the country from the devil, it will be bad for Turkey." The Department does not perceive the precise meaning of your declaration that it would "be bad for Turkey." But whatever the meaning intended to be conveyed, it is thought that the whole declaration implied a disposition on the part of this Government to adopt an attitude of intervention in Ottoman affairs which it is neither our interest nor our policy to assume. It is also observed that in your interview with the minister you adverted to a case of alleged indignity on the part of the Ottoman authorities, but that you declined to afford him any particulars until you had investigated the truth of the report. Under the circumstances the reference to the matter, especially in the form in which it was made, appears to have been premature and ill-advised. I am etc., No. 161.] Mr. Gresham to Mr. Terrell. W. Q. GRESHAM. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: The present attitude of the questions which have been raised by the Turkish Government in regard to the status and treatment of persons of Turkish origin who, having been lawfully naturalized in the United States without the previous permission of the Sultan, may return to Turkey, demands a concise recital of the views and position of this Government in this relation, in addition to the instructions heretofore given you. The essential principle in dispute is not new, and the different points of view of the two Governments have been, from time to time, shown by correspondence exchanged in particular cases during the past few years. Its phase, however, has latterly been materially changed in a sense permitting the friendly accordance of the two Governments touching the main points involved. With Mr. Hirsch's No. 380, of January 25, 1892, was communicated an explicit statement of the Turkish contention that naturalization of a Turkish subject in another country, without imperial consent, was to be deemed invalid by Turkey. In a note, dated January 9, 1892, the Porte requested the legation to instruct the consuls of the United States in the Ottoman Empire to refuse protection to those natives of Turkey who, as the note stated, "furtively betake themselves to America and, after remaining there for some time, return to their country provided with American passports and claiming to pass as citizens of the Republic." Resting on the Ottoman law of nationality of 1869, whereby Ottomans have not the right to acquire foreign naturalization without having first obtained the authorization of the Sultan, the Porte declared its inability "to admit illegal changes of this nature," |