No. 526.
Mr. Wallace to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, January 3, 1883.
(Received January 29.)
No. 160.]Sir: I take the liberty of sending you a copy of a
note forwarded today to his excellency the minister of foreign affairs. You
will remember the case of Mr. Sidi, of Smyrna, presented in my dispatch No.
126. It
[Page 822]
now appears there is
another American citizen, formerly a Turkish subject, who has large real
property, liable, in the event of his death, to forfeiture under the Turkish
law. The person referred to is Mr. Joseph Azarian, resident in this city,
who is naturally much concerned about the matter.
The evident good policy of settling the question, if possible, before a death
occurs to precipitate it in an aggravated form, is the motive of the present
communication. The minister’s answer will be promptly forwarded.
Very respectfully, &c.,
[Inclosure in No. 160.]
Mr. Wallace to
Aarifi Pasha.
United
States Legation,
Constantinople, January 2,
1883.
No. 140.]Highness: Under date of September 25 last, in a
dispatch No. 127, I had the honor to call the attention of your
predecessor, his excellency Said Pasha, to the case of Mr. Alexander
Sidi, a citizen of the United States, now and for many years a resident
of Smyrna.
Mr. Sidi had made application through the American consul at that city
for permission to have the title to a house passed to him. Presumably
this right was secured under the protocol of 1874, giving foreigners the
privilege of acquiring real property. His application was denied by the
authorities, for the reason that he had been an Ottoman subject before
changing his nationality. Mr. Sidi then applied to have the house passed
to his sons, Abraham and Joseph, both of whom are United States citizens
by birth. This was also denied him. The authorities, going a step
further, informed him that upon his death his real property would become
vacant.
In the note referred to, as in duty bound, I contest the action in both
the cases, and give my reasons at length. My demand was that the
authorities be instructed to permit the title to pass to the sons as of
legal right. As to Mr. Sidi the elder, I insisted that, admitting him to
be in the category of former Turkish subjects who had changed their
nationality, he was yet entitled to acquire real property, because the
Turkish Government, in regulating rights under the protocol, had obliged
itself to make a special law for the benefit of persons in the category
described. The failure to do so could not be justly urged to sustain the
denial of his first application, much less could it be asserted to work
a forfeiture against him.
This, it is submitted, is a matter of supreme importance as concerns
individuals, and of such gravity relatively to our respective
Governments that I presume to ask your highness’s immediate attention to
my note.
I avail, &c.,
