Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Address of the President to Congress December 2, 1913

File No. 367.11/154.

The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

No. 503.]

American Embassy,
Constantinople , June 17, 1913 .

Sir: Referring to my despatch No. 481 of April 29, 1913, wherein I enclosed a copy of the Sublime Porte’s circular note verbale of April 21 [inclosure 3 with said despatch] in regard to the occupation by Ottoman troops of the houses of foreigners at San Stefano, I now have the honor to transmit a copy of the identic note verbale sent by the foreign missions in reply to the said note.

W. W. Rockhill.

[lnclosure—Identic note verbale.]

The American Embassy to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.

American Embassy,
Constantinople , June 17, 1913.

The Embassy of the United States of America has had the honor to receive the note verbale addressed to it by the Imperial Ministry for Foreign Affairs on April 21 last, in regard to the requisition of property at-San Stefano belonging to foreign subjects.

In reply, the Embassy of the United States takes the liberty to point out that the assimilation of foreign subjects to Ottoman subjects in matters of real property is limited, according to the provisions of the Protocol annexed to the Law of 7 Sefer, by the privileges granted to foreign subjects, by virtue of the Capitulations, in regard to the inviolability of their domicile. It is therefore inadmissible that the Imperial Ottoman Government should, without previous agreement with the foreign missions, formulate unilateral legal provisions which infringe upon this right.

If the Embassy of the United States, out of deference for the Imperial Ottoman Government, has raised no objections to the requisition of uninhabited foreign properties, it must, on the other hand, insist in the most formal manner that Ottoman troops shall not be lodged in inhabited American houses without a previous agreement between the Embassy of the United States and the Sublime Porte.

As the necessity for reimbursing foreigners for the losses and damages caused by requisitions is recognized in all the literature of international law, the Embassy of the United States of America cannot but reiterate the reservations which it formulated on this subject in its note verbale of March 5th last [Inclosure. No. 2 in despatch No. 481].

Note.—No further correspondence appears in the files of the Department.