Mr. Leishman to Mr. Hay.
Constantinople, August 11, 1904.
Sir: In reply to your dispatch No. 669, of July 11, 1904, regarding the new Turkish stamp act, I beg to advise that the Ottoman Government is endeavoring to enforce the new “Loi sur le timbre,” which is being opposed by all the foreign missions.
As previously advised, I can see little or no objection to the tax itself, and acting under your instructions I have already intimated to the minister for foreign affairs that if the objectionable features of the bill were removed the legation would offer no objection to its enforcement.
According to the capitulations, foreigners residing in Turkey are exempted from taxation and can not be taxed without the consent of their respective governments. Consequently the Sublime Porte should have first submitted the proposed law to the foreign missions and obtained consent as in time past before attempting to put same into execution, as it would be a dangerous precedent to permit the Turkish Government to either increase or add to the old schedules, [Page 843] which have been in force since 1890, at their own will and pleasure, for what may be granted as a courtesy can not be conceded as a right.
The Porte has already expressed its intention of eliminating the objectionable articles in the new law mentioned in my previous dispatch, but has not yet put the same into practical execution. As time goes by the Turkish officials themselves find the wording of the new law so ambiguous and complicated that even the department which issued it experiences difficulty in defining same, so that it will in all probability have to be recast.
I have, etc.,