Mr. Hitchcock to Mr. Day.
St Petersburg, May 10, 1898.
Sir: I have the honor to call your attention to a certain class of applicants for passports of the United States, and request a ruling of the Department which shall serve as a basis for the future.
Referring to 176 Appendix to Wharton’s Digest of International Law, it appears to be the policy of the Department to recognize the claims to protection of agents of American commercial establishments in foreign countries who, by peculiar qualifications, are useful in promoting our mercantile relations, in spite of long-continued absence from the United States.
It is extremely desirable for the extension of our commercial relations with Russia that the services of American citizens, speaking the Russian language and familiar with the country, should be available to promote the interests of our producers at home, as agents, or in such other capacity as circumstances may require. To require that the connection of such agents or employees should be limited to two [Page 534] years, or any other brief term, would seriously impair their usefulness.
Upon this principal it was the practice of my predecessor to grant passports to agents for American commercial and industrial enterprises in Russia.
While recognizing the desirability of continuing this practice, and desiring a distinct ruling of the Department authorizing its continuance, I desire also to call your attention to certain cases, some of which, while technically coming within this category, are in fact little more than evasions of the Department’s rulings, while if the volume of business done is to be a standard, others would at present lie outside of the category, although in the near future they might come well within it.
Illustrative of the former class is the case of Dr. Henry Michaels, a dentist living in Moscow, whose application for a passport has been the subject of many dispatches from the Department and from this legation.
Recently it appears that Dr. Michaels has become agent for certain American specialities. The fact that Dr. Michaels was engaged in promoting American industrial interests as agent for certain manufactures in the United States was communicated to this embassy by the consul at Moscow, who stated that—
Dr. Henry Michaels has shown me sufficient evidence that he is doing business with the following American firms, viz: Bridgeport Gun Implement Company, Messrs. W. L. Gilbert Clock Company, of which firms you hold their contracts with Dr. Michaels.
The contracts referred to by the consul are the documents making Dr. Michaels agent for these firms and were held by the embassy pending consideration of the case under this new aspect. While thus debating the eligibility of Dr. Michaels for a passport a telegram from the consul informed me that Dr. Michaels and his wife were summoned to Paris by the dangerous illness of their son and that they could not leave without a passport. Under these circumstances, and in Dr. Michaels’ urgent need, I issued the passport informing the consul that I considered that I should pass upon the bona fides of Dr. Michaels’ business operations and their value in the promotion of American commercial interests in Russia, and in reply learn that he has in fact forwarded but one order to the United States, a copy of which he is unable to furnish. Dr. Michaels’ agencies would thus appear to be possibly but a cloak, under cover of which he may evade the ruling of the Department governing his case, his real purpose being to continue his residence and the practice of his profession in Russia. Another applicant from Moscow, Dr. Regner, a naturalized American, also a dentist who has resided in Moscow for fifteen years, claimed that he was authorized to sell American dental instruments in Russia, but as he did not appear to have made any sales I did not deem this claim material in the case.
Certain applicants have set up the claim that they were promoting American commercial interests in Russia upon the ground that they are agents in Russia for certain German representatives of American manufactures who have put their Russian business into their hands.
The case of Mr. Oscar Hartoch belongs to still another class. Mr. Hartoch has resided in St. Petersburg since 1875. He received a passport from my predecessor in 1895 as director of the Petrovsky Oil Works Company of New Jersey. He has, during his long residence in Russia, been in the employ of the firm of W. Ropes & Co., an old-established American commercial house doing an exporting business [Page 535] to America, and is now the manager of that business. In former years the house of Ropes & Co. did a large business, chiefly in the export of crash and sheet iron to America. That business now is little more than a name, although the firm still exists, and Mr. Hartoch informs me that it is the purpose of the partners to actively take up the importation into Russia of certain classes of American machinery.
Since the issuance of the passport to Mr. Hartoch, in 1895, the Petrovsky Oil Works Company has ceased to exist, it having become merged into the Mineral Oil Works Company, a Russian corporation. I granted a passport to Mr. Hartoch upon the strength of his connection with Ropes & Co., and his statement of their real purpose to reanimate their commercial undertakings between the United States and Russia.
With the earnest desire that our promising and growing commercial interests with Russia may have the fullest measure possible of that assistance which bona fide endeavors of American citizens here can render, and this without applying to infant commercial enterprises a test of present volume of business, where that might be unjust, I still desire to eliminate abuse of the continued protection accorded to American citizens by persons who use the color of such occupation to evade the rulings of the Department regarding abandonment of citizenship.
I therefore request such ruling of the Department as will afford a criterion in such cases.
I have, etc.,
P. S.—Since writing the above the consul at Moscow has called at the embassy and exhibited sample orders procured by Dr. Michaels for American clocks in dozens, amounting to something over $1,000. This seems to put this case in somewhat different light.