Mr. Uhl to Mr. Terras.

No. 57.]

Sir: I have received your dispatch No. 82,1 of the 1st instant, concerning the recently revived Haiti law of September, 1864, relative to the arrival of persons from foreign countries in the open ports of the Republic or who depart therefrom on a voyage to foreign countries.

In reply, I have to say that there is no provision in the treaties between the United States and Haiti exempting citizens of the United States from any obligation to produce passports, or other evidence of nationality and identity, on entering Haitian territory. The requirement that arriving foreigners shall produce passports, formerly general in the intercourse of nations, is still retained by several important governments, and their right to prescribe such a requirement is inherent in their sovereignty and can not be contested.

The fee authorized to be collected for a visa attached to a passport by a consular representative of Haiti is one-half of a Spanish dollar, and can not be regarded as excessive. The fee prescribed by the United States Consular Regulations is $1 in United States gold or its equivalent. The fee of $4 prescribed for the issuance of the Haitian certificate of travel and residence is presumably what is objected to by persons resorting to Haiti, but as this is a purely municipal tax imposed indiscriminately, there is no ground for contesting it.

The renewed application of the Haitian law in question will be given to the press for the information of the traveling public.

I am, etc.,

Edwin F. Uhl,
Acting Secretary.
  1. Substance of this dispatch was printed in Consular Reports for September, 1894, p. 144.