No. 153.
Mr. Roustan to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Washington, November 20, 1882. (Received November 21.)
Mr. Secretary of State: Since the treaty of Bardo placed Tunis under the protectorate of France the Government of the Republic has given its attention to introducing in the states of the Bey administrative institutions which may assure to that country and its inhabitants the advantages of civilization. Among the most original reforms in order to attain this end is the reorganization of justice. It becomes necessary to create in Tunis French tribunals, following the model of those in France, and administrative justice conform able to French laws. This new procedure, which will go into operation from the first of January next, will, therefore, present the same guarantees of impartiality and of good justice as the tribunals of the mother country and of Algiers. [Page 297] It is, however, important, to the end that it may yield all its advantages, that strangers established in the regency should not invoke, in order to withdraw themselves from French jurisdiction, the privileges and usages which exist in Mussulman countries in favor of Christians. It will be necessary to that end for the foreign powers to renounce any claim on behalf of their citizens and subjects to the benefits of consular jurisdiction, to which jurisdiction they are at present submitted.
In acquainting you with this situation of affairs, I should add that my Government would be happy if the Cabinet at Washington would kindly lend its aid to facilitate making such a renunciation. The operation of courts will assure besides to the citizens of the United States an administration of justice preferable from many points of view to that which they have hitherto found at Tunis.
Several powers have already shown themselves disposed to renounce the benefits of consular jurisdiction in behalf of their citizens and subjects from the day when we shall offer them in the states of the Bey the guarantees of French justice.
It is, moreover, only the application of a practice constantly followed whenever territories where consular jurisdiction was formerly in effect have passed under the suzerainty of a Christian state, and the Government of the United States will, I hope, kindly take into account the considerations which I have had the honor to set forth to you, by adopting, with regard to Tunis, the practice already established there by several precedents in other countries.
Accept, &c.,