No. 520.
Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Wallace.
Washington, October 26, 1882.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 126, of the 28th ultimo, and to approve the ground adopted in your note to the Government of the Porte, touching the right of American citizens to convey real estate in Turkey. I have also observed your remark about the absence from the protocol of August 11, 1874, of any reference to clause II of the law concerning future legislation for the benefit of Ottoman subjects naturalized abroad. Your language upon this point is as follows:
Curiously enough, the clause in the article of President Grant’s proclamation acceptive of the Turkish protocol concerning the enjoyment of real property by foreigners, upon which my [your] demand for the special law in question was based, does not seem to have authority anywhere in the protocol.
You consequently present the point for my particular examination, believing that it is but reasonable to anticipate that the Turkish Government will assert that fact in reply to your demand.
I beg to say in reply that as the protocol is explanatory of and supplementary to the law, the omission to refer to any particular clause of the law does not necessarily bar us from recurring to it and demanding its privileges. As the protocol limits and defines the law in parts, the limitations must be taken specifically, and no limitation of the law can be admitted not expressly provided and agreed to in the protocol.
You will take notice that both protocol and law are integral parts of the President’s proclamation of October 29, 1874.
I am, &c.,