No. 385.
Mr. Vignaud to Mr. Bayard.
Paris, May 25, 1888. (Received June 4, 1888.)
Sir: I am in receipt of your No. 335, of May 7, disapproving the issue of a qualified passport to Mr. Asché, a gentleman claiming to be an American citizen under section 1993 of the Revised Statutes.
The Department states that there is no authority for the issue of “passports certifying a qualified or restricted citizenship,” and requests a statement of the qualifications attached to the one delivered to Mr. Asché, “as it is not understood how he can be so certified to be a citizen of the United States and yet be subjected to any claims of a like nature by the Government of Turkey.” It desires furthermore that this passport be recalled, if practicable, and canceled.
In compliance with your instructions, and in justification of the action of this legation, I respectfully beg leave to make the following statements:
- (1)
- The authority upon which Mr. Asehés passport was delivered is paragraph 173 of the Consular Regulations of 1881, which refers to persons born abroad of an American father, and says that “if such a person who remains a resident in the country of his or her birth applies for a passport as a citizen of the United States such passport will be issued in the qualified form shown in Form No. 11.
- (2)
- The qualifications attached to the said passport are those enunciated in the form above mentioned (see page 515 of the Regulations), which are to the effect that the right of Mr. Asehé to the protection of, the United States “is limited and qualified by the obligations and duties which attach to him under the laws of the Empire of Turkey in which he was born.”
No dispatch or circular from the Department having to our knowledge canceled this instruction, I trust the legation will not be blamed for having supposed that it was still in force. It is true that in the new edition of the Consular Regulations both the instruction and the form relative to qualified passports are left out, but this new edition, received here on the 7th of April, had only been in our hands twelve days when Mr. Asché made his application, and its contents had not yet been carefully examined.
Mr. Asché I believe is not in Paris at present; I have written to him, however, and shall endeavor to have his passport returned. For my part I am satisfied that he is not a bona fide American citizen, and would not have advised the issuing of the passport had I not supposed that he was technically entitled to it.
I have, etc.,