Mr. Hay to Ali Ferrouh Bey.
Washington, October 24, 1898.
Sir: I have had the honor to receive your note of the 20th instant. You inform me of a Turkish regulation which has been in force for six years, which permits Turkish subjects to take another nationality only upon their engaging not to return to their native country, and you state that, notwithstanding this engagement, certain persons of this class, providing themselves with a passport from the country under which they are naturalized, return to Turkey, which causes difficulties between the Ottoman and foreign governments, inasmuch as the Turkish law forbids the recognition of these persons as other than Ottoman subjects. You therefore request me to take the necessary steps to avoid on the part of this Government the difficulties mentioned, stating that your Government has instructed its consular agents not to visé passports in the cases of persons of Turkish origin and foreign naturalization who may wish to return to their native land. You also invite my attention to a class of persons who leave Turkey and become American citizens without first obtaining authorization from the Ottoman Government.
The naturalization laws of the United States, which by the Constitution are required to follow a uniform rule, do not make special provision for the case of persons applying to become citizens, being subjects of a country which forbids their naturalization without previous consent of their sovereign. Consequently, the courts of the United States, or of the several States of the Union, to which the sole power of admitting aliens to citizenship is confided by the laws, are without authority to prescribe any other tests than those fixed by law, and can not require an applicant for naturalization to produce evidence that he has been granted by his Government permission to change his allegiance.
I do not, therefore, see any clear way to take the steps which you invite to the end of avoiding possible controversy with respect to the application of the Imperial rule, of the existence of which your note informs me.
As I have explained, the judicial act of alien naturalization is entirely beyond the control of the Executive; and, on the other hand, I could not apply to the granting of a passport to a citizen of the United States a condition not under the law requisite for his acquisition of citizenship.
Be pleased to accept, etc.,