No. 609.
Mr. Foster
to Mr. Evarts.
Legation of
the United States,
St.
Petersburg, December 31, 1880.
(Received January 17, 1881.)
No. 74.]
Sir: At a late hour on yesterday afternoon I
received your cablegram, dated on the 29th instant, as follows:
Urge treaty obligations Wilczynski case. Further information awaited.
It will be seen by my dispatch No. 73, of yesterday, which was just completed
when your cablegram arrived, that I have been giving attention to the case,
and have obtained for him permission to return to St. Petersburg, and remain
for the limit of time granted to all foreigners upon their national
passports, but that the Russian Government declines to modify the existing
laws prohibiting foreign Jews to reside in this city.
I inclose copies of correspondence had with the legation at Berlin, which
contains some additional facts relating to Mr. Wilczynski.
It appeared from the letter of Minister White, of October 15, inclosed with
my No. 48 of October 20, that Mr. Wilczynski, when ordered to leave St.
Petersburg, made no application to this legation for advice or assistance.
He informed Minister White that he had addressed me a letter in regard to
his case, but no such letter has been received. He has not again appeared at
the legation in Berlin to learn the result of his application for permission
to return to St. Petersburg, and Mr. Everett writes that he is probably now
in Russia. If so, he has never made his presence known to this legation, and
it is to be presumed that he has not been molested.
I am, &c.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 74.]
Mr. Foster to Mr.
White.
St.
Petersburg, December 14,
1880.
My Dear Colleague: On the 18th of October last
I acknowledged receipt of your letter regarding Mr. Wilczynski’s
expulsion from St. Petersburg, and wrote you a second letter on the
subject in October.
I now have the answer of the minister of foreign affairs to my
application for Mr. Wilczynski’s free return to St. Petersburg. He
states that Mr. W. will be permitted to return to this city and remain
for six months, and that the authorities have been
[Page 1005]
so notified. This is the extreme limit
of time allowed by the laws of Russia to all foreigners, without
distinction, entering with a passport of their nationality, at the
expiration of which time they are required to obtain a Russian passport,
or police permission of residence, if they wish to remain.
I return the passport which you sent me.
Very truly, &c.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 74.]
Mr. Everett to Mr.
Foster.
Legation of the United States,
Berlin, December 18,
1880.
Sir: In Mr. White’s absence I have the honor to
acknowledge your letter of the 14th instant, returning Mr. Wilczynski’s
old passport and stating that he would be allowed to stay six months if
he returned there. At the time his old passport was sent to you Mr.
Wilczynski took out a new one, and said that he should not have any
difficulty in returning to St. Petersburg, and staying as long as he
wished for business purposes, as he was personally known to high
officials in some of the departments, with which he had transacted
business for some years. But his grievance was that he was expelled, as
he understood, for being a Jew, and he wished to ascertain whether there
was such a law against Jews, and whether the American legation could not
protect our citizens against it.
I have been informed by one of the Russian secretaries of legation here
that there is no law in St. Petersburg expelling Jews merely because
they are Jews; but that probably this gentleman had failed to comply
with some regulation in his business transactions, or had perhaps
associated with some of the suspected characters in the city, or was one
of the Polish refugees, who it appears are an obnoxious class there.
Mr. Wilczynski has not called at this legation again, and it is probable
that he is now in Russia, as he expressed his intention of returning
there very shortly.
With many thanks for the trouble you have taken in the matter,
I am, &c.,
