Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President, Transmitted to Congress, December 4, 1893

Mr. Foster to Prince Cantacuzène.

Department of State,
Washington, February 16, 1893.

My Dear Sir: The Department is advised that the consul of Russia at New York City has peremptorily refused to visé a passport, No. 46250, issued on the 6th instant to Mannie Lerin, a duly naturalized citizen of the United States, born at Odessa, Russia. Miss Lerin explains that she desires to visit her parents in Russia, and the action of the consul, of course, precludes all possibility other doing so.

It is inferred that the consul bases his action upon the general instructions of his Government, allowing him to decline to vise a passport of a former subject of Russia who had left his native land without permission to escape military service. If this theory is correct it is not perceived how this condition can apply to the case of a woman, and I shall be glad to learn, if you please, the reason of the consul’s action in this particular instance.

Awaiting, etc.,

John W. Foster.