authorities, and hears with regret of the great destruction of property caused by the civil war. He earnestly exhorts you, and all other consuls of the United States, to spare no efforts to protect the lives, the property and the rights of American citizens in this emergency, and he will see with satisfaction any unofficial efforts you may make to shield the persons of those who have declared their intentions to become citizens from the barbarities of the Spanish volunteers, but he desires me to direct you hereafter in your official action to observe the rule laid down for your guidance in this instruction.

I am, sir, your obedient servant,

HORATIO FOx, Esq.,

U. S. Consul, Trinidad de Cuba.

J. C. B. DAVIS,
Assistant Secretary.

Mr. Fish to Mr. Boker.

No. 15.]

DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
Washington, April 19, 1872.

SIR: The dispatch without number addressed to this Department by Mr. Brown, chargé d'affaires at Constantinople, under date of 29th of February, has been received.

It acknowledges the receipt of the Circular Instruction No. 16, on the subject of passports and citizenship.

Mr. Brown reports the case of Mr. Joseph Paul Hamson, who is said to be in possession of a passport, issued by the legation at London, in 1858, which is not accepted by the legation at Constantinople, because Mr. Hamson has not papers of naturalization. It is desirable that a more exact report should be made to this Department of the facts in this case.

Mr. Brown next mentions the case of Mr. Gunster, who, he states, is not a native of the United States, nor of American parentage, and has never been in the United States. Under circumstances thus described. Mr. Gunster, of course, cannot be recognized as a citizen of the United States. It is understood from your dispatch No. 3, under date of 12th March, that he has absconded.

Mr. Brown next mentions the case of Mr. Aristahis Azarian. Record has been found in this Department of the passport, No. 6696, issued to him under date of 6th January, 1855. If, however, Mr. Azarian is an Ottoman subject by birth, and has made his domicile of late years in Constantinople, his case would appear to come within the rules of the circular from the Department of October 14, 1869.

Mr. Brown next mentions the case of Mr. James Azarian. Record of the passport, said to have been issued to him by this Department, has not been found, but as the date and number are not mentioned in Mr. Brown's dispatch, it is quite possible that such a passport may have been issued at some time. The case appears to be governed by the rule just now mentioned for the case of Mr. Aristahis Azarian.

In withdrawing from these persons, or either of them, recognition of their American citizenship, you will be careful to give them due notice, so that they need suffer no unnecessary inconvenience.

I am, &c.,

HAMILTON FISH.

No. 18.]

Mr. Boker to Mr. Fish.

LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,

Constantinople, May 12, 1872. (Received June 3.)

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt from the Department of State of dispatches numbers 15, 16, and 17. I shall carefully follow the instructions as to the course to be pursued toward certain pretended citizens of the United States residing in Constantinople, indicated in dispatch No. 15.

From all the testimony which I can gather, Mr. Joseph Paul Hamson, although in possession of a passport issued at London in 1855, has not really the slightest claim, beyond that established by the passport, of being considered an American citizen.

Mr. Brown's report as to Mr. J. F. Gunster is correct. Mr. Gunster is an Austrian Jew by birth, and he has never set his foot upon the territory of the United States. As you suppose, he is the absconding jailer mentioned in my dispatch No. 3. We shall probably never again hear of him.

Shortly after my arrival here Mr. Aristahis Azarian presented himself to me, exbibited his old passport from the Department of State, and requested me to issue a new passport to him. Knowing that there had been a question as to his right of citizenship in the United States, which my predecessor, Mr. Morris, had refused to acknowledge, I questioned Mr. Azarian closely, and he professed to be able to obtain copies of his naturalization papers from the United States, and pledged his word to produce them within a reasonable time. Pending that production, to the time allowed for which I have placed a limit, I instructed the consulgeneral to protect Mr. Azarian as fully as though his claim were established. I hope that Mr. Azarian may prove his right to citizenship of the United States, for he is a very useful man to this legation, sitting, as he always willingly does, as judge in the tidjaret or mixed court, in American cases, and therein displaying marked ability. We could more readily dispense with many a man of undoubted citizenship, in the American colony, than with the valuable services of Mr. Aristalis Azarian. In addition to the claim advanced by the two Azarians, Aristahis and James, a third brother, Mr. Joseph Azarian, is undoubtedly a citizen of the United States. He resides in the city of Boston almost altogether, where he and his two brothers have, in conjunction, an important commercial house. On the whole, this Azarian affair is pretty well mixed up, after the usual Levantine fashion, and whether Aristahis and James can emerge from it as American citizens remains to be seen. I understand that there was no suspicion of the claim of the brothers Azarian to American citizenship until, at the death of their father, a few years ago, when they got into a triangular fight over the property of the deceased, and one brother denounced the others to the minister, the consul, and to everybody who would listen to him, more Turcico. Now that peace has been made among them, the protesting brother would fain return his family to our fold, more Turcico once more.

The passport of James Azarian I shall endeavor to find. It is said to be among the papers of the late Mr. Brown.

I have, &c.,

GEO. H. BOKER.

No. 160.]

Mr. Smithers to Mr. Hunter.

UNITED STATES CONSULATE,

Emyrna, October 19, 1872. (Received November 12.)

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of dispatch No. 69 of the Department, dated September 14, in reply to mine of August 17, 1872, relative to the case of Hubert P. M. Reggio.

My refusal to register Mr. Reggio as a citizen of the United States. upon the presentation of a citizen's passport, was based upon the knowl edge that for six or seven years past he had been domiciled at Smyrna, carrying on the business of a merchant. It was also known to me that before leaving for the United States, in May last, Mr. Reggio produced at this consulate an Italian passport, for the purpose of having it vised, and was informed by the clerk that this formality was unnecessary unless he specially desired it.

It seemed to me, therefore, that the naturalization certificate of Mr. Reggio must have been improperly obtained, and that it was my duty to refer the case to the Department for its investigation and instruction. Upon receipt of the Hon. C. Hale's dispatch, above referred to, informing me that the passport of Mr. Reggio was believed to have been duly issued upon proof of his naturalization, June 14, 1872, in the cir cuit court of the United States at Boston, I immediately addressed a letter to Mr. Reggio, copy of which, marked No. 1, is herewith inclosed, inviting him to appear before me and make answer to the interrogatories therein contained. I herewith inclose copy of his written reply, marked No. 2.

This evidence confirms the verbal statement previously made to me by Mr. Reggio, namely, that at the time of his first arrival in the United States he was a minor; that his declaration of intention was made during his minority; that he left the United States before he reached his majority, to return to Smyrna, with the evident intention of permanently locating there, and that he resided here till May last, when he went to the United States, and obtained his naturalization and the passport above referred to.

In view of the requirements of the acts of Congress regarding the naturalization of aliens, as well as the instructions contained in paragraphs 110 and 111 of the Consular Regulations, I respectfully submit to the Department whether Hubert P. M. Reggio is entitled to registration by me as a naturalized citizen of the United States.

I have, &c.,

SIR: With a view of ascertaining whether or not you are entitled to protection of this consulate, as a naturalized citizen of the United States, I have to ask that you will appear at this consulate on or before Thursday next to reply to the following interrogatories, viz:

1. What is your age?

2. Where were you born, and what was the nationality of your parents?

3. Where did you reside before going to the United States?

4. When did you first arrive in the United States?

5. When did you leave the United States for the first time and return to Smyrna? 6. How long have you been residing at Smyrna since your return, and under what protection have you been?

7. When did you establish your firm of Reggio & Belhomme?

8. When did you go to the United States and obtain your naturalization? I am, &c.,

[Inclosure.]

E. J. SMITHERS,

United States Consul.

Mr. Reggio to Mr. Smithers.

SIR: I have duly received your honored note of the 15th instant, and beg to say, in reply, that some family interests calling me away from town, I am unable to appear at the consulate on Thursday next.

I will endeavor to answer the several questions you wish me to to the best of my recollection.

I am twenty-seven years old.

I was born in Smyrna, and my parents, who were likewise born in the same city, were under the Sardinian protection.

Before going to the United States I resided in Smyrna.

I first arrived in the United States in the year 1862, (or 1863,) and took my first naturalization papers.

I first left the United States for Smyrna at the end of 1866.

I have been residing in Smyrna ever since.

I carry on business under the French protection, my partner being a Frenchman, and all my interests have been protected up to this day by the French consulate. When I last left Smyrna for the United States I was compelled to take an Italian passport. The firm of Reggio and Belhomme was established on the 1st day of December, 1866. I went to the United States and obtained my first papers of naturalization in May or June last.

I remain, &c.,

HUBERT P. M. REGGIO.

REPORT OF THE EXAMINER OF CLAIMS IN THE CASE OF KINDINICO.

BUREAU OF CLAIMS, May 13, 1873. Subject: The brothers Kindinico in Egypt, judgment of Visetti against them. Mr. Beardsley's No. 78, asking instructions on the subject.

For the purposes of the question now involved it is not deemed necessary to examine the official correspondence between the Department and the consul-general at Alexandria further back than Mr. Hale's No. 133, of October 22, 1868. In that dispatch Mr. Hale informs the Department:

I. That one Trubro (an Ottoman subject) called at the consulate as the attorney of the Kindinicos with the information that George N. Kindinico had, on the 3d of July, 1868, received his final naturalization papers in the supreme court of the city of New York, and had, on the 29th of the same month, obtained from this Department a passport, No. 38,456. He desired the consul to transmit to the local authorities a claim of Geo. Kindinico against a native subject. Mr. Hale declined to do so, advised the Department of his action, and also states that the claim now presented is one of a large number of similar claims awaiting recognition by the American consulate.

II. In its No. 65, of the 29th December, 1868, the Department, in answer to the above dispatch, speaking of the particular claim, says: "Upon the face of the papers these would appear to be merely private claims, not involving any controversy with the government of Egypt.

If this

be so, the circumstance of the Kindinicos not being personally present in Egypt is no reason for withholding the assistance," and instructs him to ascertain whether the claims are merely private or partake of a politi cal character, and to report for further instruction, and also advises the consul that Thos. Kindinico was furnished with a new passport on the 20th of August, 1868.

III. On the 29th of January, 1869, Mr. Hale, in his No. 143, informs the Department that the claims are of a private character, enters into a detailed history of the Kindinico matters, referring especially to a previous instruction of the Department in 1864, wherein it denounced the claims of the Kindinicos to American citizenship as groundless and fraudulent. In this dispatch the consul furnishes an index to all the official correspondence on the subject between the Department and the consulate.

IV. The Department on the 1st of April, 1869, in instruction 67, replying to the above dispatch, says: "The Messrs. Kindinico have been naturalized as citizens of the United States, and will receive the ordinary recognition due to that character;" adding, "This recognition and protection, however, are not to relate back to proceedings antecedent to the naturalization of those persons respectively, nor to any controversies in which they have been or may be involved with the Government, in respect to which the instructions heretofore given you are confirmed." It further instructs the consul to exact from the Kindinicos in all transactions with the local government on their behalf such security for costs as will indemnify the consulate against loss or liability.

The above instruction seems to indicate very clearly the views of the Department as to the non-retroactive character of the act of naturalization.

V. On the 12th of March, 1870, Mr. Hale, in his No. 198, informs the Department that he has received a paper from the consulate-general of Italy, stating that G. B. Visetti, an Italian subject, had, in 1859, recoVered, in the court of the consul-general of Austria, (of which country the Kindinicos were then subjects,) a judgment against the brothers Kindinco for $8,000; that certain real estate in Alexandria, owned by the Kindinicos, had been set apart by the court for its payment, but the judgments had never been carried into effect; that neither the Anstrian nor American consulate recognized the Kindinicos as citizens of their respective countries; that the Egyptian government had announced by circular that the Kindinicos would not be recognized as other than Ottoman subjects, no matter what their naturalization.

The Italian consul sends a copy to Austrian and American consulates, and also to local government. Mr. Hale files it and reports to Depart

ment.

VI. This dispatch is acknowledged on the 18th of April, 1870, instruction No. 87, and the hope expressed that the adoption of the new system of judicial reforms in Egypt will relieve the consulate from further annoyance in relation to the affairs of the Kindinicos.

VII. In the dispatch now before me, (78, from Mr. Beardsly,) he says Mr. Butler interfered in behalf of the Kindinicos; no mention of it in Mr. Butler's dispatches. Mr. Beardsly now wishes instruction as to his duty in the premises, and asks, in case the question of the execution of the judgment, either by the Austrian consul or the local authorities. seeking to execute, he should interfere to prevent its execution on the ground that the Kindinicos are now citizens of the United States, or whether, on the other hand, if appealed to by the Austrian or Italian consul, he should aid in the enforcement of the judgment.