of George Salem because his father had been acknowledged as a Persian subject by a declaration of the Foreign Office dated the 21st December 1890, in consequence whereof George Salem must be regarded as being under American administration. When, some time afterwards, his rights as an American citizen were again doubted, the Governor of Cairo sent the last American passport, which had been produced by Salem and in the meantime become invalid, to the American Agent and inquired whether Salem still enjoyed American protection. The Agent replied in his letter of the 20th December 1916 as follows:

I have the honour to inform your Excellency that Mr. Salem owing to his protracted residence in Egypt and his inability to present satisfactory evidence to overcome presumption of expatriation under the Act of March 2, 1907, is not now registered at this Agency as an American citizen, or entitled to the protection of the United States.

At the same time the Agent returned George Salem's expired passport to the Governor after having it duly cancelled. This attitude of the American Agency did not change in 1917 when George Salem was another time prosecuted by the police in Cairo and again referred to his rights as an American citizen (letter of the 15th December 1917 from the American Agent to General Sir Reginald Wingate, at that time British High Commissioner in charge of the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo).

At the beginning of 1917 Goubran Salem became very seriously ill. George affirms that his uncle sold to him a part of his estate of about 330 feddans, by an agreement acted in February 1917 but antedated the 26th January 1917, for the price of 18,000 Egyptian pounds for which a receipt was given, that the deed was drafted, after dictation, by the secretary of Goubran, a Neguib Zeitoon, was signed by six of Goubran's friends as witnesses, but that actually this transfer of land was made in order to settle George Salem's claims against Goubran for his inherit

ance from his father Josef. On the 2nd August 1917 the deed got a fixed date by registration at the Mixed Court at Cairo but was only transcribed on the 26th October 1917 at the mortgage office of the Mixed Court at Alexandria.

In the meantime the illness of Goubran Salem took a fatal turn. After the rumour of the transcription of the deed of January 26, 1917, had reached Mehalla on the 27th October, the Deputy Public Prosecutor (Substitute of the Parquet) in Mehalla, a Fahmy Bishay, was called to the sick-bed of Goubran in order to take down a complaint. There he drew up a protocol according to which Goubran denied having sold any part of his estate with the exception of some small pieces which were sold to farmers in the neighbourhood.

According to the protocol Goubran Salem refrained from accusing any named person of having forged a document of sale. Four days later, on the 31st October 1917, Goubran died.

On the 7th November of the same year a written agreement was made between the heirs according to which Adele, Fadwa, and Salma acknowledged the deed of the 26th January 1917 as genuine; on the other hand, George retroceded to the coheirs the 330 feddans alleged to have been sold to him, so that the state of an undivided inheritance was practically restored by the agreement. Of this inheritance, Adele, Fadwa, and George received 6/24 each, Salma 5/24, and Marie 1/24. With regard to certain buildings and chattels belonging to the inheritance special conditions were made. The details are shown in the copies of the agreement filed and acknowledged by the high conflicting parties.

On account of the Persian nationality of the deceased and in accordance with Persian law and the Persian-Turkish treaty of December 1875, paragraph 8, the Persian consul general at Cairo claimed the right to raise a fee of 6 percent of the value of the estate of Goubran Salem. For this purpose the Persian consul general asked for the necessary assistance of the local authorities and this was

granted in accordance with paragraph 4 of the treaty. But the heirs contested the claim of the consul general alleging that, being Egyptian local subjects, they were not under the authority of the Persian consul in this case of inheritance. At first George Salem had referred to his American citizenship; but on request of the Persian consul general the American Agent, by a letter dated November 3, 1917, had answered that Salem was no longer recognized by the Government of the United States as entitled to American protection. For the resistance which George offered he was arrested by the Persian consulate officials, accused and sentenced on the 5th December 1917 by the Persian consular court to one month's imprisonment, which sentence however was not carried out.

As there was no doubt that some of the heirs were of Egyptian nationality Abdel Gawad Isfahani who was appointed as provisional manager of the estate by the Persian consul general requested that the Mixed Court at Cairo appoint him finally as custodian. In the proceedings all the heirs, including George Salem, declared by their counsel to be of Egyptian nationality. Finally the court did not appoint Isfahani but Fadwa Hawara as custodian of the estate.

Contrarily to the heirs Isfahani did not recognize as valid the deed of the 26th January 1917 which reduced the value of the inheritance considerably. He had become aware of the protocol of the Deputy Prosecutor Bishay dated October 27, 1917. While the Parquet in Cairo took no steps by reason of the protocol, Isfahani brought a criminal charge of forgery against Salem on February 28, 1918, and took the role of the civil party during the proceedings. The General Prosecutor entrusted Mohamed Zaki el Ibrashy Bey with the proceedings, not only against George Salem but also against the writer of the deed and the six witnesses, as accomplices.

In these proceedings Fadwa Hawara took the role of the civil party after she was appointed guardian to the inheritance on the 10th of April 1918. The course of the

investigation was as follows: First the accused and a great number of witnesses were heard by Ibrashy Bey, who handed to Seoudy Bey, an official of the Egyptian Ministry of Justice, a great number of documents which bore Goubran Salem's signature including the protocol of October 27, 1917, and requested him to ascertain by comparison of the signatures whether the signature of Goubran under the deed of the 26th January 1917 was false or genuine. Some of these documents including the original of the doubtful agreement had been handed to the Prosecutor by George Salem. The expert gave his opinion in October 1918. Ibrashy Bey placed it before the accused George Salem and his counsel Me. George Nassif for comment. Both contested the conclusiveness of the opinion, whereupon the Prosecutor put their objections before the expert. Seoudy Bey made a supplementary opinion upholding his first opinion which stated that the signature of Goubran to the deed in question had been forged.

In consequence thereof on the 8th February 1919 the Prosecutor resolved to summon the accused George Salem and the seven other accused persons before the native criminal court at Mehalla. The first hearing was fixed for the 24th February 1919. A decision was not given then, as George Salem, through his counsel, applied several times for adjournment.

In March and April 1919 George Salem asked the Egyptian authorities for a passport to England to have an invention patented. He presented himself as a native and received the passport in spite of the pending criminal proceedings. He travelled with his Aunt Salma via Paris and London to the United States. In Paris he succeeded in procuring an American emergency passport.

On the 5th August 1919 George Salem applied again to the Secretary of State in Washington in order to overcome the presumption of expatriation. This application remained unanswered (cf. American Counter Case, p. 433). On the other hand, on the 10th of September he

gave to the competent official for delivering passports a sworn declaration of his residence in the United States and outside the United States. On the 16th September 1919 he supplemented his request by a sworn declaration made before a notary in Washington stating the reasons which compel him to return to Egypt at once. On the 18th September 1919, the State Department granted him a new American passport.

In the meantime Salem's counsel had paid to the Persian consul general the amount of 5,168 Egyptian pounds for taxes and expenses whereon the consul withdrew his charge against Salem. The criminal proceedings were postponed till the 16th October 1919 and then to 2nd November 1919 to wait for the return of Salem. On the 16th October 1919 George Salem, who had returned to Cairo, received a certificate from the American consul general stating that he was bearer of a passport issued by the Department of State, on September 18, 1919, and an American citizen. By virtue of this certificate he induced the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to declare to the Ministry of Justice that his right to American citizenship was acknowledged by the American authorities. The Minister of Justice telegraphed on the 1st of November 1919 to the Parquet at Mehalla as follows:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs us that the American Diplomatic Agency has informed them that George J. Salem who is accused in a criminal case for which there is a hearing tomorrow, is an American citizen. You are directed to take this into consideration.

During the hearing on the 2nd of November George Salem and his defending counsel applied for discontinuance of the proceedings on the ground of non-jurisdiction as he was an American citizen. George Salem presented the consular certificate and referred to the telegram of the Ministry of Justice. But the court, after having proceeded to the hearing of witnesses, decided to deal with the question of jurisdiction together with the chief case