Mr. Uhl to Mr. Denby.
Washington, May 17, 1895.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 2182, of March 28 last, in relation to the refusal of the Russian Government to grant permission for an American missionary to pass through Siberia en route to the United States, and to the position assumed by that Government that temporary refuge in Russian territory would not be accorded to Americans who might be impelled to seek such refuge by threatened danger to their lives.
The United States minister at St. Petersburg has been furnished with a copy of your dispatch, and he has been instructed to take occasion to inquire whether the Russian regulations against the residence or travel of foreign ecclesiastics or missionaries in Siberia are as strict as Count Cassini interprets them to be, even to the inhospitable degree of denying shelter to citizens of a friendly State whose lives might be imperiled.
I am, etc.,
Acting Secretary