No. 562.
Mr. Hoffman to Mr. Evarts.
St. Petersburg, July 15, 1880. (Received July 31.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch Bo. 14, addressed to Mr. Foster, in which you instruct him to make certain representations to the Imperial Government in relation to the expulsion [Page 877] of American Jews from Russia, and especially in reference to the case of Mr. Henry Pinkos.
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In relation to this particular case, I have unofficial reasons for believing that at the expiration of the three months granted him, if he wishes to remain, he will not be disturbed. He tells me, however, that he has had enough of Russia and wishes to return to the United States.
I may be permitted to add that I did not intend to imply in my No. 205 that Mr. Pinkos had been ordered to leave Russia. I stated that “he had been ordered to leave St. Petersburg.” I carefully examined and had a translation made of the police indorsement upon his passport, and called his attention to the fact that he was to leave St. Petersburg only. He answered, however, and justly, that with a business established here, to be ordered to leave St. Petersburg was equivalent, in his case, to being ordered to leave Russia.
I do not understand that foreign Jews have been ordered to leave Russia. As I had the honor to state in my No. 205, “foreign Jews have been ordered to leave not only St. Petersburg, but Moscow and some other large towns, where they have hitherto been permitted to reside.” These cities, it will be recollected, are under martial law, as I had the honor to report in my No. 94, of April 23, 1879, and the harsh measures of the expulsion of foreign Jews from them must be looked upon, I fear, as within the legal power and authority of the military governor.
With these explanations before you, should you still think that representations should be promptly made to the Imperial Government in regard to the case of Mr. Pinkos, it will give me pleasure to make them in the language of your dispatch.
I am, &c.,