Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 5, 1898

Mr. Hay to Mr. Straus.

Department of State,
Washington, December 19, 1898.

No. 47.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 25, of the 22d ultimo, reporting that the restrictions against the presence of Jews in Palestine apply only to Jews going there in bodies as colonists, and do not affect American travelers and visitors.

This agrees with the Department’s understanding of the present activity in enforcing the rules against Semitic colonization of Palestine. The inquiry did not suggest any doubt in our minds as to the tenor and purpose of the Ottoman regulations, and would not have been made had it not been for the recent action of the Turkish consul at New York in refusing visas to Americans of Jewish race, even though in one case the person was the pastor of a Christian church.

You have been informed of the correspondence exchanged with Ferrouh Pasha on this subject.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.