Mr. Frelinghuysen to Mr. Taft .
Washington , December 18, 1884.
Sir: The Hon. S. S. Cox, M. C., has addressed the Department on the subject of a report that the Russian minister of the interior has ordered the expulsion from Odessa and other cities of all Hebrews holding foreign passports unless also holding “permits of residence.”
So far as any of these persons are citizens of the United States, I have to ask that you will communicate to the foreign office the desire of the President that law-abiding American Hebrews, on due exhibition of such passports, may receive the adequate permits of residence referred to. Should it prove that no such order has been made, you will telegraph, and in case the order has been issued you will report as promptly as convenient the approximate number of American citizens in the various cities where it is operative affected by it, that I may apprise Mr. Cox of the facts.
I am, &c.,