Mr. Hay to Mr. Jay.

No. 731.]

Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch No. 942, of the 8th ultimo, in which you report that Xenophon J. Ralli—who had resided for seventeen years permanently at Smyrna, with no intention, as he declared in his application to the legation for a new passport, to return to the United States—finding that he could not obtain a passport from the legation, went to the United States, obtained a passport on August 24 last from the Department, and at once returned to Turkey.

You further report that Ralli has been summoned some eight or ten times by the Turkish authorities to answer various criminal charges since Mr. Lane has been consul at Smyrna, but has escaped prosecution in every case, owing to the disinclination of the Ottoman authorities to prosecute him in an American consular court.

You add that you have felt compelled to instruct the consul at Smyrna to afford Ralli every protection pending the instructions which you request the Department to give you in the matter.

In reply I have to say that Ralli’s status has not been improved by his obtaining a passport from the Department, inasmuch as the passport was obtained on false statements. The passport may, therefore, be disregarded, and his status considered the same as that he occupied before he made his hurried journey to this country for the sole purpose of securing a passport.

I am, etc.,

John Hay.