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the statements made by the President in recent annual messages, show that the Turkish Government claims the right to exclude from the Ottoman territories, or to deport in case they be found therein, naturalized citizens of the United States of Armenian birth who have become such naturalized citizens without Imperial consent since the year 1869. This right is claimed in exercise of a prerogative of sovereignty as an execu tive measure in regard to aliens whose presence in the Empire may be deemed prejudicial to the public interest. Its enforcement in regard to such persons has not been opposed, nor has remonstrance been made save in the case of arrest or punitive proceedings against the parties on the ground of their having become citizens of the United States without Imperial permission United States passports held by persons so situated are recognized by the Turkish authorities as evidence of the fact of naturalization and citizenship, but the recognition so accorded does not prejudice the exercise of the sovereign right of exclusion or expulsion for the causes stated.

The law of Turkey, like that of Russia and some other countries, does not recognize unpermitted change of allegiance by a Turkish subject; but, although no treaty of naturalization exists between the United States and Turkey in regulation of this point, no instance has yet been pressed by the Turkish Government in assertion of a right to treat the individual as a Turkish subject or to punish him for the alleged offense of becoming a citizen of a foreign State without permission.

The second branch of the Senate inquiry covers two distinct matters. It is asked, in the first place, whether the families of such naturalized citizens residing in Turkey are permitted to leave that country and come to the United States. By "the families of such naturalized citizens" the resolution is presumed to mean the wives and minor children, who alone might, when within the jurisdiction of the United States, be held to acquire citizenship through the naturalization of the husband or father.

The naturalization laws of the United States being obviously framed to permit the bestowal of the franchise of citizenship upon certain persons of alien birth who are within its jurisdiction, and the application of these statutes being intrusted to the judicial branch, it is clear that they can not operate to naturalize by indirection or by executive interpretation a person who is an alien by birth and origin, who has never been within the jurisdiction of the United States, and who at the time may be dwelling within a foreign jurisdiction.

The Turkish Government has on several occasions permitted the emigration of the wives and children of Turkish subjects who had come to the United States and here acquired citizenship, leaving their families behind them. It has even permitted the emigration of other kinsmen of a degree not within the purview of the naturalization laws of the United States. It has also, asserting a discretionary power in the premises, refused to permit the emigration of the families of naturalized Armenians, even within the marital or filial degree. The good offices of the United States minister are uniformly exerted on all proper occasions to assist the emigration of such persons, upon permission properly secured from the Turkish authorities, and, when funds have been assured to pay the journey, he has assisted their departure. He has likewise assisted the coming to the United States of the wives of citizens of Armenian origin, who, being in this country at or subsequent to the naturalization of their husbands, have returned to Turkey; and of the children of such citizens, born abroad subsequent to the natu ralization of the father or who may have acquired American citizenship

by actual presence in the United States subsequent to the father's naturalization, and in such instances permission for the families to emigrate has been demanded as of right. These latter instances, however, are relatively few in number compared with the cases in which good offices have been exerted, with varying success, to procure the emigration from the Turkish dominions of the kindred of a naturalized Armenian, including the parents, brothers, and sisters, and even relatives of remoter degree, who could not become citizens of the United States except by individual naturalization.

The resolution further inquires:

Whether naturalized citizens of the United States of Armenian birth have the same rights and protection in that country as have naturalized citizens of Great Britain, France, Germany, or Russia.

As to this, the privilege claimed by the Government of the United States for such citizens by naturalization in the country of origin is greater than that claimed by any one of the four Governments named. A very general rule among Governments of the European continent, and one which obtains in principle with respect to Great Britain also, is that no alien may be admitted to become a citizen of the State by naturalization except upon production of proof that his change of allegiance is permitted by the sovereign of whom he is already a dependent.

In the case of Great Britain this rule is somewhat differently applied. The British statute of naturalization prescribes that the naturalization of an alien shall be without force and effect should he return to the country of his original allegiance, unless by the laws thereof or by treaty between that country and Great Britain his change of status is recognized, and an indorsement in the language of the naturalization act is made upon all British passports issued to aliens as follows:

This passport is granted with the qualification that the bearer shall not, when within the limits of the foreign State of which he was a subject previously to obtaining his certificate of naturalization, be deemed a British subject unless he has ceased to be a subject of that State in pursuance of the laws thereof or in pursuance of a treaty to that effect.

The United States minister at Constantinople has heretofore reported that naturalized Armenian or other Turkish subjects of Great Britain, France, Germany, or Russia returning to the jurisdiction of Turkey are not claimed by their adopted Governments as citizens, nor protected as such, except upon proof that their change of allegiance has been permitted, or is recognized, by the Government of Turkey.

Respectfully submitted.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,

Washington, January 22, 1896.

FR 95-93

RICHARD OLNEY.

VENEZUELA.

PROTECTION OF VENEZUELAN INTERESTS IN FRANCE. 1

Mr. Andrade to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF VENEZUELA, Washington, D. C., March 12, 1895.

SIR: I have the honor to request, in the name of my Government and under the head of friendly service, that your excellency may be pleased to authorize by cable the ambassador of the United States at Paris to assume charge of the protection of Venezuelan interests in France in the event of the minister of Venezuela making such a proposition by reason of his having to leave that country.

I avail myself, etc.,

JOSÉ ANDRADE.

No. 3.]

Mr. Uhl to Mr. Andrade. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, March 12, 1895. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of to-day's date, asking that our ambassador at Paris be instructed to assume protection of Venezuelan interests in France, in the event of his being so requested by the minister of Venezuela at that capital, and in reply to inclose copy of Department's telegram, of to-day's date, to Mr. Vignaud, our chargé d'affaires ad interim, directing him to use his friendly good offices in behalf of Venezuelan citizens in France. Accept, etc.,

EDWIN F. UHL,

Acting Secretary.

RUPTURE OF RELATIONS BETWEEN VENEZUELA AND FRANCE

AND BELGIUM.2

Mr. Rojas to Mr. Andrade.

[Translation.]

[Handed to Mr. Gresham by Mr. Andrade, March 28, 1895.]

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN RELATIONS OF VENEZUELA,

Caracas, March 7, 1895.

SIR: NO. VI of the documents of the Green Book of the Kingdom of Italy contains a protocol, signed by the representatives of France, Germany, Spain, and Belgium in Venezuela, which was sent by them some

See also under France, page 424.

2 See also under Belgium, page 40, and France, page 422.

time since to their respective Governments, and which was evidently designed not only to insult the Republic, but to cause strong pressure to be exerted upon it in order to induce it to accept certain onerous conditions. Two of the signers left the country many months ago and their places have been filled, but the other two, viz, the Marquis de Ripert Monclar, representative of France, and Mr. H. Ledeganck, chargé d'affaires of Belgium, continued to discharge their functions; wherefore, the President of the Republic, being mindful of his duties as guardian and custodian of the national dignity, resolved to declare that they were unsuitable persons to act as mediums in our political relations with those two States, and to send them their passports.

This measure of the Government has been received with unanimous approval by the whole country, in which public excitement had reached such an extreme, cwing to the statements made by those gentlemen, that the most energetic measures were absolutely necessary to prevent a serious conflict.

In informing you of this occurrence, and in inclosing to you the offi cial newspaper containing the principal documents relating to the matter, I have the honor to beg you to be pleased to do all in your power to prevent the circulation of inaccurate news on the subject in the United States of America, inasmuch as serious difficulties will thus be avoided. Our relations with the French Republic and with the Kingdom of Belgium are in no wise impaired by the unavoidable measure which has just been taken by the President, since it has reference solely to the personality of the gentlemen who saw fit to render themselves unsuitable to continue to treat with the Government of Venezuela.

The telegram which I addressed to you yesterday had reference to this annoying incident. It was as follows:

The publication signed by the ministers of France and Belgium in the Italian Green Book is highly insulting to the Republic and its government. Consequently, in order to uphold the national dignity and prevent, at the same time, conflicts, owing to the excitement which prevails among our citizens, it has been absolutely necessary to declare those gentlemen unsuitable to sustain friendly relations with Venezuela, and their passports have been sent to them. This measure is purely personal. We shall continue to cultivate cordial relations with the countries which they have represented. Please try to have correct reports concerning this matter published in the American newspapers.

By the clipping which I inclose, and in which the article in question appears, you will see that the purpose to act inimically toward the Republic is therein manifested, as is the determination to create a body whose irrevocable decisions, besides infringing our laws, are to lower our national dignity. The intention is therein seen to form a powerful alliance against an American State, which, as its main source of strength, has nothing but the fundamental provisions of international law, which have been sadly disregarded in the principal portion of the protocol.

All this must be considered as being a matter of the utmost gravity, and it is consequently of the highest importance that you, having examined the case and fully understanding its nature, should solicit a special audience with the honorable Secretary of State for the purpose of informing him both of the cause of the step taken by Venezuela and of the danger to which the independence of these Republics is exposed if those purposes are accomplished, since they would constitute a coalition like any other against the free nations of America.

In treating of this matter with Mr. Gresham, it will be well to convey to his mind the conviction that Venezuela, for many weighty reasons, regards the United States as a nation that is called upon to watch over the political and territorial integrity of the other American peoples.

He should further be informed that, in the opinion of this Government, this incident will in no wise impair the friendly relations of Venezuela with France and Belgium, since the governing powers of those countries can not regard the measure which has been adopted otherwise than as the fulfillment of a sacred duty, viz, the vindication of the honor of the Republic.

I am, etc.,

P. EZEQUIEL ROJAS.

А сору.

JOSÉ ANDRADE.

Mr. Andrade to Mr. Gresham.

[Translation.]

LEGATION OF VENEZUELA,
Washington, D. C., May 11, 1895.

SIR: In connection with the diplomatic controversy now pending between Venezuela and France, of which your excellency already has knowledge, I have received instructions to communicate to the United States Government the contents of the dispatch which I have the honor herewith to inclose, together with the documents therein mentioned, with the exception of the Italian Green Book, which I have deemed it unnecessary to send to your excellency, since I know that the said publication is in the library of the Department of State, and since what is essential in relation to the controversy in question is found in Inclosures V and VI.

The American embassy at Paris was authorized, when the difficulty began, through the well-timed kindness of your excellency's Government, and at the instance of that of Venezuela, to take Venezuelan citizens residing in France under its protection. The friendly feelings of which the United States then furnished evidence to my country lead it to hope that the request now made will be followed by an equally speedy and satisfactory result.

Accept, etc.,

JOSÉ ANDRADE.

[Inclosure.]

Mr. Pulido to Mr. Andrade.

MINISTRY OF Foreign RELATIONS OF VENEZUELA,

Caracas, April 17, 1895.

SIR: The matter to which this note relates is deserving of special attention.

The rupture of relations with the French Republic was not, as is well known, occasioned by Venezuela. Urgent necessity and the requirements of the national honor decided the Chief Magistrate to declare the representative of that nation unfitted to act as the medium of the friendly relations cultivated by the two Republics. The measure was one of a purely personal character; and the acts and explanations which followed it, and which the French Government would not await before breaking off its diplomatic intercourse with us, are manifest evidence of the conciliatory spirit by which Venezuela, from the very outset, wished to be guided, provided always that the national dignity should not be in the slightest degree impaired.

This Government is of the opinion that, if the French Government had awaited the special communication which was addressed to it by

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