No. 573.
Mr. Bayard to Viscount das
Noguieras.
Washington, May 19, 1887.
Viscount: I have the honor to acknowledge your note of the 15th instant, informing me that passengers to the Azores are expected to have their passports visaed by the Portuguese consular officer before sailing, but that all passports are not necessarily furnished by tile consulate, as Mr. Watson was led to suppose by the agent of the ship, he and his friends having already obtained passports from this Department.
You appear to think that the agent must have misunderstood the Portuguese consular code; though, even were this the case, it would seem that the vice-consul should, on Mr. Watson and his friends exhibiting their passports at the consulate, have limited himself to affixing a visa, instead of obliging them to obtain passports of him.
In view of Mr. Watson having been required to procure a Portuguese passport in addition to the one he already had, I have the honor to request you to call the attention of your vice consul in Boston to the occurrence, as being at variance with article 76 of your consular code, as cited by you, and instruct him, if proper, to set the agents right as to the papers required of passengers, and, if the facts should prove to be as stated by Mr. Watson, to explain why that gentleman and his party should have had to obtain new passports instead of visas only.
Accept, etc.,