No. 1095.
Mr. King
to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Constantinople, September 24, 1888.
(Received October 8.)
No. 115.]Sir: I inclose for your consideration a copy of a
dispatch from our consul at Jerusalem concerning the threatened expulsion of
three Jews from Jaffa who arrived furnished with American passports.
On the receipt of the telegram spoken of by Mr. Gillman, I had requested the
sending of a telegram by the minister of foreign affairs, and later
(September 8) of another by the Grand Vizier, which I hope stopped the
efforts to expel them. I have asked the consul-general for information about
the present state of the matter.
I inclose a copy of my note to the Porte on the subject, which I hope will
meet your approval.
I have the honor, etc.,
Pendleton King,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim.
[Inclosure 1 in No. 115.]
Mr. Gillman to Mr.
Pringle.
Consulate of the United States,
Jerusalem, August 30,
1888.
No. 66.]Sir: I have the honor to report that I have
this morning telegraphed to our legation as follows: “Three Americans
with unvisaed passports, threatened with expulsion. Protest.”
Fearing delay, the telegram was sent directly to the legation instead of
through the consulate-general.
The occasion is as follows: Three citizens of the United States
(Hebrews), viz, Meyer Freeman, Isaac Gliechman, and Jacob Reichmann, who
arrived at Jaffa on the 20th instant from Port Said, were prevented by
the police from proceeding to Jerusalem on account of their passports,
issued by our Department of State, not bearing the visá of some Ottoman
consulate abroad.
At the same time the commissary of police sent word to our consular
agency at Jaffa that the aforesaid three citizens would be compelled to
leave Palestine by the first steamer. All efforts of our consular agent
that our citizens be permitted to pass and have their passports returned
to them were in vain. The local Turkish authorities would not give up
the passports, and insisted on expelling the bearers of them.
The result of my most urgent representations and protests with the
Ottoman authorities in Jerusalem was simply the return of the passports,
which were forwarded to me by our consular agent, Mr. Hardegg, on the
26th instant, with the expression of the belief that the owners would
follow their passports the next day.
But in this Mr. Hardegg was too sanguine. One, indeed, of our aforesaid
citizens, viz, Mr. Reichmann, evading the vigilance of the Jaffa police,
escaped to this office, in Jerusalem, on the 27th instant, but the
others, two old men, past seventy years of age, who were coming to die
in the Holy City, are still held under the strictest police restraint as
though they were the prisoners of the kaimakam of Jaffa. Two attempts
have been made to expel them on touching steamers; and they were only
rescued from the clutches of the police by the most energetic efforts of
Mr. Hardegg, who again called personally on the kaimakam (28th instant)
and obtained, with great difficulty, a respite of eight days subject to
the order of the governor of Palestine, who was at this time absent from
Jerusalem. This respite ceases on September 6 next, when the authorities
are determined to expel those citizens.
All my most persevering protests addressed to the authorities here, both
before and since the return of the governor, Raouf Pasha, have received
the reply that they are acting under new instructions received from
Constantinople.
In notes of the 29th and 30th instants, Raouf Pasha informed me, in reply
to my most positive appeals, “that the action of the kaimakam of Jaffa,
in expelling the
[Page 1616]
aforesaid
three Jews, citizens of the United States, is according to an order from
the Sublime Porte.”
I have no doubt you will lose no time in communicating these facts to our
legation, and that the proper action demanded by the urgency of the case
will be taken. Meanwhile I am transmitting to the Department of State at
Washington, a complete statement of the incident.
I am, etc.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 115.]
Mr. King to
Said Pasha.
United
States Legation,
Constantinople, September 22,
1888.
No. 45.]Excellency: Three American citizens arrived at
Jaffa on the 20th ultimo, furnished with passports, which were taken
from them on their arrival, and they were with difficulty saved by the
consular agent of the United States from expulsion because they were
Jews.
At the urgent representation of the United States consul in Jerusalem
their passports were returned, but they were at last accounts held under
the strictest police restraint.
The governor, his excellency Raouf Pasha, says that such action is due to
instructions from the Sublime Porte.
I would recall to your excellency’s attention the dispatch of Mr. Straus,
No. 27, of May 17 last, for a statement of principles by which my
Government is guided in reference to religious differences, and to note verbale No. 21, of February 23 last,
regarding the proposed passport regulations of the Ottoman
Government.
The detention or expulsion of these American citizens would be in
violation of long-established rights, and their expulsion might lead to
disagreeable complications.
I therefore ask your excellency to give immediate orders to allow these
men to go where they will, without hindrance, in the full enjoyment of
their rights and liberties as American citizens, and hereafter not to
interfere with any other American citizens, whatever their religious
creed may be, who arrive furnished with American passports, because a
repetition of such an occurrence will doubtless lead to a stringent
protest on the part of my Government.
Accept, etc.,
Pendleton King,
Chargé d’Affaires ad
interim.
