No. 572.
Viscount das
Nogueiras to Mr. Bayard.
Washington, May 15, 1887. (Received May 16.)
Sir: I had the honor to receive your note of the 11th instant, in which you inform me that a certain Mr. Henry Watson, an American citizen, has been informed by the agents of the boat which he was to take to go to the Azores that the passengers going to the islands of that archipelago must provide themselves with Portuguese passports, which he, Mr. Watson, could obtain at the vice-consulate in Boston, and that the price of a passport was $3.30.
You also ask me if this notification of the agent is the result of orders emanating from Portuguese consuls and authorized by my Government; and finally, you wish to know, if there be no objection, what instructions [Page 938] are given to our consuls with regard to Visas or passports for travelers to Portugal or her colonies. By article 76 of the Portuguese consular code the captains of ships are obliged to present at the consulates or vice-consulates at the moment of their departure for Portuguese ports the necessary documents, as also the passports of passengers. If these latter are foreigners their passports must be visaed at the consulates or vice-consulates, but it is not required that all the passports should be made out by the consuls or vice-consuls. The visas for foreign passports amount to about 80 cents.
I think, therefore, that the agent of the boat on which Mr. Watson embarked erroneously interpreted the provisions of the Portuguese consular code.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,