Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 2, 1878

No. 509.
Mr. Maynard to Mr. Evarts.

Legation of the United States,
Constantinople , March 13, 1878. (Received April 11.)

No. 231.]

Sir: With the return of peace, we have from the Sublime Porte a notice of new police regulations in the matter of passports and of the proprietors of establishments for the entertainment of travelers. Copies of them have been transmitted to the legation with a note from the ministry of foreign affairs, and are herewith inclosed.

They seem very stringent, called forth, doubtless, by some emergency of which I have not the slightest intimation.

I have, & c.,

HORACE MAYNARD.

[Inclosure in No. 231.—Translation.]

Circular—Police regulations.

Sublime Porte , March 3, 1878.

Mr. Minister Resident: I have the honor to transmit herewith several copies of two regulations in relation to the temporary measures taken by the police with regard to the passport system and to hotel and inn keepers and other lodging-house proprietors. I beg you will kindly take the necessary steps to insure the strict observance of these measures by your countrymen.

Accept, sir, the assurance of my distinguished consideration.

• M. ASSIM.
• Mr. Maynard, Minister Resident, & c., & c.

Provisional police regulations in regard to passports.

• Article 1. All persons who enter the Ottoman Empire must he furnished with a passport having a visé of an Ottoman embassy, legation, or consulate, under the pain of arrest and expulsion from the territory. In places remote from a legation or an Ottoman consular residence, persons wishing to visit the Ottoman Empire will provide themselves with a passport from the local authorities good for Turkey; hut if on their journey they come to a place where there is a diplomatic or consular agent of the Sublime Porte, they must have their passports viséed by that agent. This regulation will be put in force one month after the communication of these measures.
• Art. 2. All persons quitting Ottoman territory must be furnished with a passport from their own consulate (if they are leaving the capital), certified by the passport bureau and having the visé of the police authorities; if they are leaving the provinces they shall apply to the local authorities to have their passports viséed; all this under pain of being forbidden to depart.
• Art. 3. All persons wishing to travel in the interior of the empire must be furnished with a permit from the bureau of passports, which will be delivered to them on the presentation of a certificate from their own authorities. This permit must be viséed by the police, and no foreigner will be allowed to go through Ottoman territory unless he is provided with a permit of this kind duly viséed by the police. Persons who do not identify themselves with the permit in question will be returned to the place from whence they came.
• Art. 4. It is forbidden for agencies and captains of steamships or sailing-vessels to give passage-tickets to or to allow travelers to embark on their vessels for a foreign port unless said persons are furnished with a passport having the visé of the police. Agencies of railways or steamships and captains of steamships or sailing-vessels who shall break this rule will be held responsible for any damage or wrong which may result; they will be tried and, according to the importance of the case, a pecuniary penalty will be inflicted, and they shall suffer the full penalty of the law. This provision will be enforced one week after the communication of these regulations.

Provincial police regulations relating to proprietors of hotels, innkeepers, and lodging-house keepers.

• Article 1. It is forbidden for any hotel proprietor, keeper of an inn or other lodging-house, to receive any person who is not provided with a regular passport or teskéré. This measure has reference only to persons coming from abroad who desire to sojourn in the country; persons domiciled in or natives of the country are naturally exempt from the obligation of exhibiting a passport or teskéré when they apply to any of the forenamed establishments.
• Art. 2. Every proprietor of a hotel, keeper of an inn or other lodging-house shall keep a register, in which are to be inscribed the names, Christian names, the position, the profession, and the nationality of travelers upon their arrival; also the place from whence they come shall be indicated, and the probable length of their stay and the date of the last visé of their passports. They shall deliver every day to the police a copy of the names registered during the previous day. The heads of the said establishments shall inform the police of any crime or offense or disorder committed by travelers, and also of anything which shall require the intervention of the police.
• Art. 3. The police agents shall have the right to visit at any time the said establishments, to examine the required registers, or to obtain information in regard to travelers. Beyond these special cases the police will act in accordance with the usual rules.
• Art. 4. Any infraction of this regulation by proprietors of hotels, keepers of inns or other lodging-houses, will occasion, in the first instance, a warning; and on the repetition of the offense, this will be repeated peremptorily. The third offense will be punished by a prohibition of travelers from entering the hotel, and for this purpose a policeman will be stationed at the door of the establishment.