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.,
[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.
[Page 865]
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.
