Mr. Thompson to Mr. Foster.
Constantinople, February 28, 1893. (Received March 16.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 31, dated February 9, 1893, in which my action in issuing a passport to the family of Hachik M. Michaelian, a naturalized citizen of the United States, is disapproved by the State Department.
In your No. 18 of the 15th of December, 1892, I was directed to use my “good offices” to assist Mrs. Michaelian and family in joining her husband in the United States. My reason for issuing said passport was because of the fact that such a course is recognized by the Ottoman Code in relation to the families of citizens of foreign countries, and reads as follows:
Législation Ottomane, Vol. i.
Law on Ottoman Nationality, p. 7, art. 7.
The Ottoman woman who marries a foreigner may, if she becomes a widow, recover her quality as an Ottoman subject by making her declaration to that effect within the three years that follow the death of her husband. Anyhow, this provision is applicable to her person; her real estates are submitted to the general laws and regulations which govern them.
The case of Mrs. Michaelian appeared to be one covered by the above provision, and her passport is recognized by the Turkish authorities. As a matter of course your decision in this case will be the rule in issuing passports in similar cases hereafter. Yet, under my instructions from the Department in this case to use my “good offices” in securing [Page 604] to this woman and family a right to be allowed to leave Turkey to join her husband, who was a citizen of the United States, it was most easily and effectively done by issuing a passport that was recognized by the Turkish authorities under the above quoted law.
I have, etc.,