Safe conducts, in a form similar to that of special passports, have also been issued to aliens, especially as bearers of dispatches. So, also, letters of safe conduct, commonly called passports, are given to foreign ministers traveling in or departing from the United States. Hunt's Am. Passport, 7-35. The following is an interesting example of a document partaking of the nature both of a safe conduct and a passport : "To all whom these presents shall come, greeting: "The bearer hereof, Baron Humboldt, a subject of His Prussian Majesty and member of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Prussia, with his secretary, Mr. Bonpland, being about to return from the United States, with forty boxes of plants and other collections relating to natural history, all his own property, by way of France to Berlin, from an expedition into South America and Mexico, undertaken at his own expense for the improvement of natural history: These are to require the commanders of all armed vessels of the United States, public and private, to suffer them to pass without hindrance, and in case of need to give them all necessary aid and succor in their voyage: and in consideration of the respect due to persons engaged in the promotion of useful science, they are in like manner recommended to the favorable attention of the officers, citizens, and subjects of all friendly powers. “In faith whereof, I, James Madison, Secretary for the Department of State of the United States of America, have signed these presents and caused the seal of my office to be annexed hereto, at the city of Washington, this 23d day of June, A. D. 1804, and in the 28th year of the Independence of the said States. (L. S.) 14 MS. Dom. Let. 331. "JAMES MADISON.". "Within the last few years the subject of the issuance of special passports of this character [to unofficial citizens of the United States] has had careful examination, with the conclusion that they do not satisfy the statutory definition of a passport as regards the certification of citizenship. For such certification but one form of passport is authorized, and this the Department issues upon due proof of citizenship and payment of the prescribed fee. The special passport appears properly to be limited to the cases of persons going abroad in fulfillment of some official trust or duty, and in such cases is necessary as a certification of the bearer's public character." Mr. Olney, Sec. of State, to Mr. Wagner, Nov. 25, 1895, 206 MS. Dom. "The Department does not question the exigency which required the employment of a bearer of despatches, the legation necessarily being the best judge on this point, but any document given him by the legation for his safe conduct was not, properly speaking, a passport, if he was not an American citizen, and no fee was charged, as appears to have been the case. The law, section 4076, Revised Statutes, forbids the issuing of a passport to any one who is not a citizen of the United States, and it is not permissible to issue one without collecting the fee. (See Secretary Sherman's decision, page 25, 'The American Passport.')" 66 Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Mr. Storer, No. 313, March 25, 1901, MS. Inst. Special passports are not to be issued by our agents abroad, and no passport whatever is to be issued without collecting the fee of one dollar required by law." Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Mr. Storer, No. 313, March 25, 1901, MS. Inst.. Mr. A. Dudley Mann having complained of the refusal of the Russian legation in Paris to visé his passport, Mr. Everett said: "As you had no despatches for Russia, the President entirely approves your conduct in not claiming any favor as a bearer of despatches, although you were in possession of a passport in that capacity. Some looseness of practice has crept in, with reference to passports of this kind, of an injurious tendency. Originally given to those actually charged with despatches, they have been retained. for ordinary use after the despatches have been delivered at their destination. This circumstance has sometimes given an unreal character to these passports, which tends to impair their value in the hands of those entitled to them, besides being objectionable in other respects." Mr. Everett, Sec. of State, to Mr. Mann, Dec. 13, 1852, 41 MS. Dom. Let. 138. tions, IX. LOCAL PAPERS. 1. EUROPEAN COUNTRIES. $529. The meaning and interpretation of section 163, Consular Regulaseems very plain and obvious. In cities or Germany. towns in Germany where, for purposes of identification, sojourning foreigners are required by the local laws or municipal regulations to deposit their passports with the police or other local authorities, as is understood to be the case in Hamburg, Berlin, and generally in cities and towns throughout Germany, a consular certificate may be granted setting forth the facts as appearing from the passports, but only with a view of complying with the law or regulation.' "The person seeking such certificate there must present to the consul a passport, and the passport must not be over two years old. The certificate should be confined in its statements to the facts appearing from the passport.' It should also state the time at which it (the certificate) will cease to be effective, which time is to be limited by the date at which the passport will be two years old, and it should also state expressly and explicitly that it is only to be used in the locality where it is issued, and there only for the purpose of compliance with the local laws and regulations of such locality. Moreover, in no case is such consular certificate to take the place of or to be used in lieu of a passport." Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Sargent, July 26, 1883, MS. Inst. passport is good in Russia for more than six months, and must then be replaced by a Russian local permit to reside or travel, renewable from time to time, and always liable to be demanded by local officials or hotel keepers." Russia. Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Straus, min. to Turkey, No. 14, May 10, 1887, MS. Inst. Turkey, IV. 573. For a case of the arrest of an American citizen in Russia, with a passport, for having failed to exchange his passport for a Russian permit in the first province of the Empire which he entered, see Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Hunt, No. 7, July 22, 1882, MS. Inst. Russia, XVI. 287. The American consul at Beirut, having protested against the Turkish regulation requiring local passes or teskéréh, Turkey. to be obtained for traveling in the interior, under penalty of a fine of two Turkish livres, or about 8 cents, as an annoyance to travelers as well as an infraction of Art. IV. of the treaty of 1830, the Department of State said: "It is probable that in Turkey the variety of languages and races to be found in her dominions renders a foreign passport, which is in language utterly unintelligible to local officials in districts remote from Constantinople, much less efficient and useful in protecting travelers than a Turkish teskéréh, with familiar language, seals, and signatures. Such a document may fairly be considered as a safe conduct, and on the ground of personal safety alone it might be wiser for travellers to take pains to inform themselves of the rules enforced in Turkey and waive the slight annoyance and expense attendant on observing them, in consideration of the additional feeling of security therefrom. Article I. of the treaty [of 1830] says: 'On both sides travelling passports shall be granted.' penalty exacted for the absence of a teskéréh is not applied as the result of a trial by court, but is merely a police regulation. The consul The small says that other powers have acquiesced in these passport regulations, and it might be better, as long as there is no national discrimination in the treatment of our citizens, to reserve the enforcement of our judicial privileges for graver questions. The enlightened city of Berlin enforces a fine against any one, whether foreigner or citizen, who, after being twice summoned, neglects to appear in person with their papers at the police office, and a third summons renders the delinquent liable to imprisonment. The theory of foreign governments is that stringent passport regulations protect innocent travellers against troublesome mistakes in identity for guilty ones or from other annoyances to which strangers are everywhere liable. "It might, however, be well for you when, in your judgment, a favorable opportunity offers, to represent to the Turkish Government that while our countrymen are scrupulously desirous of observing all the laws and ordinances of the countries in which they travel, yet that it is hoped that some mitigation would be acceptable of the present Turkish passport regulations, which are found to be oppressive for citizens of a country so distant as our own, and to persons so little accustomed to any travelling restraints. "You may suggest, for instance, that the visé of the consul at the last port should be dispensed with, and the fine remitted in cases where through ignorance of regulations the local teskéréh has not been procured. It would also perhaps be useful to our citizens if your legation and the consulates in Turkish dominions could have a translation of the Turkish passport regulations printed in good sized type, to be displayed in a conspicuous place for the benefit of our travellers." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Straus, min. to Turkey, No. 14, May 10, 1887, MS. Inst. Turkey, IV. 573. "The requirement of Turkish teskéréhs for traveling Americans, of which you complain, is not regarded by the Department as unreasonable, in view of the general inability of the native Turk to comprehend the purport of a United States passport. Such travel permits are recognized in China and Japan, and the laws of some European and South American countries require locally issued certificates for traveling or sojourning foreigners." Mr. Uhl, Acting Secretary, to Mr. Metheny, March 8, 1895, 201 MS. Dom. In consequence of the Armenian troubles, the Turkish Government suspended for a time the authority of the teskéréh office or bureau at Constantinople to issue travel permits for the interior on a consular application, and required an iradé to be obtained from the palace. In November, 1898, however, the former practice was restored, and a notice was issued that foreigners desiring to travel in the Empire might “in future obtain local passports on producing an ilmu-haber (application) from the consulate of their country, setting forth their identity, the object of their journey, the places to which they wish to go, as well as the approximate duration of the stay they intend making." For. Rel. 1898, 1100. The requirement that a foreigner traveling in Turkey must have a Turkish teskéréh, or travel permit, "has been inforce for many years, and as long as it is not abused is no doubt a very sensible and proper police regulation, as few if any of the Turkish agents can read either English or French." Mr. Leishman, min. to Turkey, to Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, July 5, 1901, In October, 1900, complaint was made to the legation of the United States at Constantinople by the United States consul at Ezerum, that the Rev. Mr. Cole, an American missionary at Bitlis, was deprived of his treaty rights by the refusal of the governor-general to grant him a teskéréh or traveling passport. As the governor stated that he was acting under orders from Constantinople the legation asked that he be directed to issue the teskéréh. Such a direction was promised, and it seems to have been given, but to have been afterwards countermanded. On learning this fact, Mr. Leishman, the American minister, authorized Mr. Cole, who had then been unable to attend to his affairs in various places outside of Bitlis for nearly a year, to travel with his American passport wherever his duty or interests might require, always taking care to advise the governor of his movements, and informed the Porte that he should hold the Government responsible for Mr. Cole's safety and strictly accountable for any damage, annoyances, or inconveniences which he might suffer. It seems that the course of the Turkish officials was due to Mr. Cole's active interest in the Armenian cause. For. Rel. 1901, 523-529. 2. AMERICAN COUNTRIES. § 530. "It sometimes happens in Spanish-American countries that an alien is required to deposit his passport with the legation or a consulate and receive a certificate of registry according to local formula." Mr. Adee, Acting Sec. of State, to Mr. Terres, Sept. 26, 1893, For. Rel. 1894, 346, |