File No. 13230.
Memorandum from the Italian Embassy.
It very frequently occurs that foreigners who have transactions with the postal offices in the Kingdom complain because their passports, written out in a language other than French, are not recognized.
The Italian postal employees are not required to know any language besides French, and as only in the principal offices interpreters are to be found, it follows that only very seldom they can admit, as a proof of identity, a document they do not understand.
In order to do away with these inconveniences, the royal ministry of posts proposes that the post offices should recognize those passports which are accompanied, if not by a complete translation of the contents in Italian or French, at least by the translation in Italian of the description of the person to whom they are issued.
Such translation ought to be legalized with the signature and the seal of the proper consulate.
The Royal Government is desirous of knowing whether the Government of the United States would be willing, in the interest of American citizens, to instruct their consulates in the Kingdom to comply with these formalities.
Moreover, according to the resolutions passed by the last postal congress held in Rome, the adoption of postal papers of recognition (livrets d’identité) was approved. Such papers are the most adapted for establishing the identity of a person.
In any case it would be most desirable that those Americans who travel in Italy and can not obtain such a document in the United States should provide themselves, as soon as they arrive in the territory of the Kingdom, with an Italian postal booklet of recognition.
- Date of receipt.↩