No. 1075.
Mr. Straus to Mr. Bayard.

No. 68.]

Sir: A note verbale has been received from the’ Porte in regard to the protection given to H. A. Proios by the consul of the United States [Page 1574] in Odessa, Russia. The Porte asserts that said Proios is a Turkish subject; that he was employed here in some official position, and after stealing a sum of money and falsifying the books escaped to Russia. He has there been arrested, and was about to be sent to Constantinople when the consul of the United States at Odessa intervened because said Proios had a passport from this legation. On examining the books I found that a passport was issued to him July 30, 1887, in place of an old passport, No. 15,046, from the State Department, dated September 8, 1871, signed by Mr. Hamilton Fish. The signature of Mr. Fish is genuine, though the passport is filled out in a writing that does not look as if it was done at the State Department. This old passport bears on the corner the stamp of a “United States passport agent, 41 Chambers street, New York,” but the name of the agent is illegible.

As Mr. Proios may be sent here for trial, I desire to have the facts which you may have on record, or can obtain in New York, as to his naturalization and citizenship.

I am, etc.,

O. S. Straus,
By Pendleton King,
Secretary of Legation.