No. 319.
Mr. Wallace to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
[Extract.]
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, July 11, 1882.
(Received August 2.)
No. 107.]
Sir: * * * * * * *
Through Mr. L. Oliphant I had an account of the Jewish exodus from Russia,
and of the misery the refugees were undergoing in the towns north of this.
Some of them having reached Constantinople, were starving in the streets. My
sympathy was naturally excited in their behalf.
On the 6th of June last two gentlemen were brought to the legation, and upon
introduction presented a paper, of which a copy is inclosed. You will
perceive that it is a petition craving assistance for their coreligionists
in the Kingdom of Roumania; that the subscribers represent themselves as
delegates acting for forty-nine local committees in their country; and that
the point they wished to gain, through my services unofficially rendered,
was the privilege of colonizing in such districts of Syria as contained
localities available for the purpose. They seemed respectable men and very
much in earnest. Mr. Oliphant was personally acqainted with them, and he
recommended them to be what they seemed. The interview resulted in my
telegraphing for permission to give them and their people my good offices in
obtaining for them, if possible, permission to colonize themselves in
Turkey.
Mr. Oliphant and a Mr. Alexander, both respectable gentlemen, were the agents
of the movement in Constantinople. They met me, by my invitation, at the
legation. A discussion of the best mode of procedure was had, and an
agreement reached. I was to visit the Porte and use
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my best efforts to get the privilege sought; having
obtained it, my connection with the business was to end; they were to manage
the immigration and the settlement of the colonists.
Agreeably to this arrangement, I visited the minister of foreign affairs, who
informed me that the matter had been before His Majesty’s council of
ministers, which had decided affirmatively that the Jews from whatever parts
could come and settle in Turkey; that there was a general law of immigration
in force which must be taken for the guidance of such as chose to come; that
they could come when they pleased, and would be settled in groups of two
hundred or two hundred and fifty families, that they could settle on any
unoccupied lands in Mesopotamia, about Aleppo, or in the regions of the
Orontes River; that they could not establish themselves in Palestine; that
the firman of the Sultan was unnecessary, for, having once approved the law,
he could not be called on to do so again; that every colonist was simply
bound to become an Ottoman subject.
This, you will readily see, covered all my part of the business. The refugees
could come immediately; the lands at their service were good; the law was
liberal and encouraging; if they behaved themselves they would do well. I
made report to Messrs. Oliphant and Alexander and discharged myself from the
connection.
A little later, when the affair had an appearance of taking on extraordinary
proportions, possibilities of trouble to the immigrants presented
themselves, and I thought it safer to have the worthy minister of foreign
affairs put his replies to me in writing. With that view, I addressed him a
note, of which a copy is inclosed. In an interview, the undersecretary (Mr.
Artin Effendi) assured me that as the immigration would be under the law, no
further assurances were necessary; and as that seemed reasonable, I was
satisfied, and did not press an answer to my communication. I make an
inclosure of the note because it sets out the minister’s replies on nearer
approach to exactitude.
For your more perfect understanding of the scheme as it now stands, and to
enable you to answer questions upon the subject, should such be addressed to
you, I take the liberty of making an inclosure of a copy of the Turkish law
of immigration (translated).
In conclusion, there is nothing to prevent all the Israelites on the earth
from settling in Asiatic Turkey. They shall not settle in Palestine—that is
the only prohibition.
I have, &c.,
[Inclosure No. 1 No. 107.]
Messrs. Aseher &
Weinberg to Mr. Wallace.
Constantinople, June 6,
1882.
Your Excellency: We, the undersigned delegates
of the central committee of Jewish emigration in Roumania, representing
forty-nine local committees, beg to approach your excellency for the
purpose of craving your assistance and support in behalf of our
oppressed coreligionists who are suffering under legal disabilities in
the kingdom of Roumania, which render it impossible for them any longer
to find means of subsistence in that country, where many thousands are
reduced to starvation.
Sufficient funds have been subscribed by the Jewish committees in
Roumania to enable many colonies to be formed in the dominions of His
Majesty, and we would crave your excellency kindly to procure permission
and liberty for our coreligionists to settle in any of the
Mutessarafliks of Syria wherever there are available localities.
The points which we desire to know are, viz: Whether Jews on becoming
Turkish subjects will be permitted to settle in the waste lands of the
Vilayet of Syria, excluding
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the Pashalik of Palestine free of charge in groups of not more than five
hundred families, and whether they will also be permitted to purchase
lands and settle on them in agricultural communities.
- 2d. Whether, if so, they will be exempt from taxation for the next
five years.
- 3d. Whether they will be permitted to construct roads to the
nearest large town or seaport.
Some of these societies are wealthy, possessing in some instances a
considerable capital, and their members are possessed by no other desire
but that of developing the resources of the country and occupying
themselves as peaceable citizens.
While only especially representing our Roumanian coreligionists, we would
also venture to remind your excellency that owing to the daily
recurrence of prosecution and disasters of the most fearful description
our brethren in Russia are living in a state of panic-stricken suspense.
In many instances they have realized all their worldly goods and
abandoned their occupation, not anticipating any check to their desire
to emigrate into Turkey, and are now rapidly consuming the capital with
which they had hoped to start in their new home.
The matter has become one of the most serious and urgent necessities.
Hundreds of thousands of people are awaiting with the utmost anxiety
information upon which they can safely act, and your excellency and the
great and the philanthropic nation which you represent would be
performing an act of the highest benevolence and charity if, owing to
your kind intervention in their behalf, they may be relieved from their
present dread and extremity, and leave countries in which they have
nothing but ill-treatment to anticipate, for one where the experience of
their coreligionists has proved they may expect peace and protection,
and where they would thankfully become loyal and patriotic subjects of
His Magnanimous Majesty the Sultan.
President of the committee for Bucharest Jewish emigration.
Founder and member of the committee in the Kingdom of Roumania.
[Inclosure 2 in No. 107.]
Mr. Wallace to
Said Pasha.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, June 13,
1882.
Excellency: In the interview which I had the
honor to have with you yesterday, I begged permission to express my
great personal interest in measures for the relief of refugee Jews
congregating in the north and to inquire, purely in the way of good
offices and unofficially, if His Majesty or the Sublime Porte would be
charitably disposed to allow refugee Jews to come into Turkey, and
colonize on the public lands.
You were good enough to inform me that the subject had been under
consideration by His Majesty’s Council, which had decided to allow
colonization by those people, provided they did not settle on lands
within the limits of Palestine. I asked then in what localities they
would be permitted to settle. You replied they might settle about Aleppo
and in Mesopotamia, and the region of the Orontes River. I then asked if
they would be suffered to come in groups. You replied in groups of two
hundred or two hundred and fifty houses, by which I understood families.
I inquired if it would be necessary to have an imperial firman, or a
permit in form from His Majesty before entering upon the movement of the
people. You replied that there was a law already existing which covered
the immigration proposed; that as the law had received His Majesty’s
sanction no further permit would be required from His Majesty. To my
final inquiry, if I was at liberty to notify the parties who would
interest themselves in the matter as active managers that they could
begin the movement immediately, you said there was no objection to my
doing so.
Now, excellency, should the movement take on the large proportions I
anticipate, there would be not a little responsibility attaching to me;
and to relieve me of that, and enable the immigration to be conducted
strictly according to the washes and decision of His Majesty and the
Sublime Porte, I have the honor to submit if it would not be better that
you communicate your replies to me in writing, and in convenient form,
that I may in turn communicate them to the persons to be intrusted with
the active management. Would you allow a further expression, it is, in
my judgment, especially important that the conditions which you desire
to impose upon the colonization should be stated with explicitness.
Such, for instance, as what the Sublime Porte holds to be the limits of
Palestine, and the localities outside those limits to which you prefer
the movement should be directed.
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Your excellency will of course understand this, and my whole connection
with the affair, to be unofficial.
It would be a great kindness to the people in question, if your
excellency would favor me with the communication requested at your
earliest convenience.
I avail myself, &c., &c.,
[Inclosure 3 in No.
107—Translation.]
No. 6.
Colonization in Turkey by Foreign
Families.
Conditions established by the imperial
government with regard to the colonization in Turkey of families
coming from foreign countries who would like to settle on becoming
subjects of the Ottoman Empire.
- Article 1. The colonists will first take
an oath to be always faithful to His Majesty the Sultan and accept
the conditions of subjects of the empire without the least reserve
or restriction.
- Art. 2. They will conform to the actual
and future laws of the empire.
- Art. 3. In common with other subjects of
the empire, colonists will be free from all kind of hinderance in
the exercise of the religion they profess, and they will enjoy
without any distinction the same religious privileges as all the
other classes of subjects of the empire. If in the localities that
may be given to them by the government for their installation there
be any chapels of their rite and these in sufficient number, they
will perform their devotions in them, but if they are to form new
villages, they will apply for and obtain of the imperial government
the permission to erect such chapels as they may need.
- Art. 4. In the provinces of the empire
that will be found suitable for their installation there will be
chosen from government lands the most fertile and most healthy
tracts, and to each colonist will be granted such a portion of land
as may be suitable to his means, to enable him to carry on
agriculture or any other trade.
- Art. 5. The colonists being established
on government lands, which will be given them gratuitously will be
exempt from all land or personal taxation for six years, if they are
established in Roumelia, and for twelve years if they are
established in Asia.
- Art. 6. In like manner the colonists are
exempt from military service or its equivalent in money, those in
Roumelia for six years, those in Asia for twelve years.
- Art. 7. After the expiration of these
terms of exemption the colonists will be subjected to all taxes and
imposts on the same footing as the rest of the subjects of the
empire.
- Art. 8. The colonists will not be
allowed to sell the land given to them gratuitously by the
government, excepting after a lapse of at least twenty years.
- Art. 9. Those who before the expiration
of this delay may desire to leave the country or change their
nationality will restore to the government their lands. In like
manner they will be obliged to leave to the government without any
compensation whatever all buildings they may have raised upon the
lands, which will be no longer regarded as their property.
- Art. 10. The colonists will acknowledge
the authorities of the Caza or of the Landyok, to which the villages
may belong, and little boroughs where they are established, and they
will be governed and protected as the other subjects of the
empire.
- Art. 11. If before the expiration of the
term of their exemption these colonists be obliged to change their
abode and to establish themselves in any other place of the empire,
they will be allowed to do it; but the term of their exemption from
all taxation and imposts will still date from the time when the
first ground was given to them.
- Art. 12. The colonists must not have
been criminals in their former country or of doubtful behavior, but
must be honest men, laborers and tradesmen. And the imperial
government reserves to itself the right to expel from the empire
those who may subsequently be proved to have been in their own
countries criminals or of bad character.
- Art. 13. As each family, wishing to come
to Turkey in order to colonize, will have granted to them as much
ground as their means require before they start for Turkey,
registers will have to be kept, containing minutely and in detail
their names, their qualities, their means, and the sum of capital
they possess. These must be put up and forwarded to the imperial
government by its legations and consulates abroad, where there are
any, and it is established that each family must have a capital
equal to a sum of at least 60 medjidies in gold (about 1,350 francs,
or $54).
- Art. 14. From the time of their
departure from abroad as well as on arrival in Turkey, the consuls
of the Porte abroad and the imperial authorities at home will have
to give these colonists necessary facilities for the transport of
their goods and luggage. Their passports will be given to them free
of charge by all the Ottoman consuls.
The council of the Toujimat (of reform) considers it incumbent upon any
families desiring to colonize in Turkey to inform the government thereof
at least two months before-hand, so that by the resolutions or steps
that have already been taken, the government may have time to designate
in the provinces of the empire which may be chosen for their
colonization convenient lands to be distributed amongst the colonists,
so that upon their arrival in Turkey they should not incur loss of time
and fatigue. Consequently instructions will be given to the
representatives and to the consuls of the empire abroad in conformity
therewith.
