No. 1085.
Mr. Straus to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, May 26, 1888.
(Received June 9.)
No. 85.]Sir: Referring to my dispatch, No. 80, of the 19th
instant (subject: Restrictions against foreign Jews resorting to Palestine),
I have the honor to inclose for your information a copy of the note sent by
the British embassy, as well as a copy and translation of the note sent by
the French embassy to the Sublime Porte upon this subject, bearing date,
respectively, the 24th and 23d May, 1888.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure 1 in No. 85.]
The British embassy to
the ministry of foreign
affairs.
Constantinople, May 24,
1888.
No. 66.]Her Britannic Majesty’s embassy has had occasion lately to draw the
attention of the imperial ministry of foreign affairs to the
inconvenience caused to certain British
[Page 1591]
subjects in the mutessariflik of Jerusalem by the
application to them through the local authorities of special rules as to
residence on account of their being of the Jewish creed.
Whilst reserving to itself to demand redress for any special case that
may be brought to its cognizance, Her Majesty’s embassy considers it
essential to submit to the Sublime Porte the present demand for the
complete abrogation of any instructions which may have been issued on
this subject, and which it can only consider as derogatory to the rights
and privileges guarantied to all British subjects without distinction of
creed or class in all the dominions of His Imperial Majesty, the
Sultan.
Her Majesty’s embassy has had the honor to receive the note of the
Sublime Porte, No. 20, of February 23, but Her Majesty’s Embassy can not
take into consideration the concessions the Sublime Porte has kindly
consented to make, as Her Majesty’s Government looks upon the principle
involved as too serious to admit of any regulation whatsoever being made
which would be prejudicial to the liberty of traveling guarantied in
Turkey by virtue of existing rights and observed in Great Britain
towards all classes of persons without any distinction of religion.
[Inclosure 2 in No.
85.—Translation.]
The French embassy to the
ministry of foreign
affairs.
Pera, May 23,
1888.
No. 46.]The French embassy has been advised by its consul at Jerusalem that the
French Israelites have been for some time the object of vexatious
measures on the part of the local authorities of Palestine. In
accordance with this information the agents of the Imperial Government
have demanded several times from the vice-consul at Jaffa, formally to
engage himself to oblige the French Israelites landing in that port to
leave again after a maximum period of thirty-one days; the
representatives of the French Government having refused to lend himself
to such a demand, his countrymen have been constrained to re-embark
immediately.
The embassy has the honor to observe to the Sublime Porte that the
limitation of the sojourn in Palestine of French Israelites constitutes
a manifest derogation of the personal liberty which the treaties
guaranty in the Ottoman Empire to all Frenchmen, without any distinction
of religion.
By opposing the prolonged sojourn of Israelites in Palestine, the
Imperial Government expected, it seems, to put an end to the excessive
immigration of individuals of this religion escaping in masses from
their country of origin to avoid the persecution to/which they are the
victims. But if the Sublime Porte deems the assembling in that part of
the Empire of the immigrant Israelites may offer some inconvenience,
this argument can not at any rate be used in regard to French
Israelites. France, in fact, not being in the number of the powers that
have taken measures of exception against individuals belonging to the
Israelite religion, the Sublime Porte has evidently not to dread the
immigration en masse of French Jews.
The measure of prohibition imposed against the Israelites coming from
abroad would have, then, as regards French citizens, a character purely
vexatious and absolutely unjustified, as they would only concern a few
isolated families or individuals who, from time to time, go to
Palestine.
The French embassy is convinced that the Imperial Government,
acknowledging in its high equity the justness of these observations,
will not hesitate to retract the rigorous provisions which have been
recently adopted in Palestine against French Israelites. It requests, in
consequence, the Sublime Porte kindly to give orders, so that those
Israelites have hereafter, like other French subjects, every liberty to
sojourn in that part of the Empire in conformity to the rights and the
guaranties which are secured by treaties.
