No. 1078.
Mr. Bayard to Mr. Straus.
Washington, April 25, 1888.
Sir: I desire to acknowledge receipt of your No. 68 of the 5th instant, relative to the naturalization of Hercules A. Proios, and to inclose for your information a copy of a dispatch from your colleague at St. Petersburg, No. 168,* of the 31st ultimo, and of my reply thereto, No. 120,* of the 17th instant, from the latter of which it will be seen that this Department perceives no valid ground for remonstrance against the action of the Russian Government in surrendering Proios to Turkey.
The Department’s passport, to which you advert, No. 15046, of September 8, 1871, was issued to Mr. Proios, a native of Greece, on regular affidavits, supported by a certificate of naturalization from the criminal court of Cook County, Illinois, dated August 14, 1871.
But while Proios was naturalized as a Greek and renounced his allegiance to the King of the Hellenes, yet, in view of his long residence in Turkey and the absence of evidence of animus revertendi on his part, this Department can not regard his former naturalization in the United States as an offset to the allegation of the Turkish Government, that he subsequently became a subject of the Ottoman Porte, by his express and voluntary act. Should Proios offer evidence to prove that he consistently and openly professed and retained his American citizenship, you should weigh it carefully.
I am, etc.,