No. 1083.
Mr. Straus to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, May 19, 1888.
(Received June 2.)
No. 80.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of
your instruction No. 78, of March 5 last, with inclosure, respecting
restrictions against foreign Jews resorting to Palestine.
Upon investigation I learn that the restrictions have not been made in
pursuance of the sultan’s iradeh, but result from instructions issued by the
Sublime Porte.
In effect, however, there is no difference, as they have been strictly
enforced by the governor of Jerusalem and throughout Palestine, as well as
at certain ports along the Syrian coast.
In accordance with your instructions I inquired of two of my colleagues, the
English and French ambassadors, their views upon the subject. I learn that
they had received from their respective Governments instructions very much
in the same sense as I had received from you.
As long since as the 23d of September, 1887, the right honorable Sir William
A. White, the British ambassador, sent a note to the Porte protesting
against the regulations upon the ground that the right of
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British subjects to go and come within the
Ottoman dominions is secured by the capitulations and confirmed by all
subsequent treaties, and that no distinctions of race or creed can be
admitted as regards British subjects or protégés whatever religion they may
profess.
The French ambassador, Count de Montebello, informs me that he had been
instructed to protest against said regulations, and that he would be pleased
to confer and co-operate with the English ambassador and myself in the
matter. Some three weeks since he informed me that he proposed sending a
signed note to the Porte protesting against said regulations; that he had
also conferred with the British ambassador, who stated that he would take
similar action as soon as a new case in point came before him.
As there is likely to be some delay before my said colleagues take the action
indicated, in view of your positive instructions, and the fact that I am
informed by the Grand Vizier that the regulations in question have been
referred to the legal advisers of the Porte for examination and report upon
the question of their modification, I deemed it advisable to delay no longer
in forwarding my protest so that it might be before the Porte pending the
further consideration of the subject and before a final conclusion might be
arrived at. I therefore on the 17th instant transmitted a note to the Porte,
of which the inclosed is a copy, wherein I followed in the main not alone
the spirit but the letter of your very full and explicit instructions, which
I found so completely and well adapted for that purpose.
Trusting that the action thus far taken by me will meet your approval, I
have, etc.,
[Inclosure in No. 80.]
Mr. Straus to
Said Pasha.
Legation of the United States,
Constantinople, May 17,
1888.
No. 27.]
Excellency: Respecting the recent instructions
placed by the Imperial Ottoman authorities upon foreign Jews going to
Palestine, the Secretary of State lias referred to me, with definite
instructions, a note addressed to him by his excellency Mavroyeni Bey,
imperial minister at Washington, bearing date the 2nd day of March,
1888, whereby he informs the Government of the United States that, in
order to put an end to the immigration of Jews into Palestine, “the
Sublime Porte has decided only to authorize free access into Palestine
to Israelites coming from foreign countries under the following
conditions: Their passports should expressly state that they are going
to Jerusalem in the performance of a pilgrimage and not for the purpose
of engaging in commerce or taking up their residence there. As regards
their sojourn in Palestine, instead of one month, it can not in any case
exceed the space of three months. They must have their passports so
drawn up (libellés) viséd by the Ottoman consuls,
and on their arrival they will be hound to supply themselves with a permis de séjour issued by the Imperial
authorities and couched in the same terms.”
I am instructed to inform your excellency that under any circumstances
the impossibility of my Government acceding to any such requirement
should be distinctly made known to the Sublime Porte.
To require of applicants for passports, which under our laws are issued
to all citizens upon the sole evidence of their citizenship, any
announcement of their religious faith or declaration of their personal
natives in seeking such passport would be utterly repugnant to the
spirit of our Constitution and to the Intent of the solemn proscription
by the Constitution of any religious test as a qualification of the
relations of the citizens to the Government, and would, moreover, assume
an inquisitorial function in respect of the personal affairs of the
individual, which our Government can not exert for its own purposes and
could still less assume to exercise with the object of aiding a foreign
government in the enforcement of an objectionable and arbitrary
discrimination against certain of our citizens.
I am informed that these restrictive regulations are being very cruelly
enforced, not only in Palestine but at the various ports along the
Syrian coast, and that foreign
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Jews upon their arrival at these ports, in addition to the foregoing
restrictions, are compelled to furnish security to the local authorities
that they will again leave the country when the period of three months
has expired, and in default of their being able to furnish such security
they are thrown into prison.
The foregoing considerations are submitted with the hope that the Sublime
Porte will cause these restrictions to be modified or annulled in
accordance with the broad principles of toleration that were proclaimed
throughout the Ottoman Empire first among the nations of Europe and the
Old World, that are embodied in the grand charters of liberties, the
Hatti-Scheriff and Hatti-Humayoun, and secured to all races and creeds
under the capitulations, and under treaties with the United States and
other nations.
Accept, excellency, etc.,
