1874-NUMBER 10. [ACCEPTING FOR CITIZENS OF UNITED STATES RESIDING IN TURKISH DOMINIONS LAW OF OTTOMAN PORTE CEDING RIGHT TO FOREIGNERS TO HOLD IMMOVABLE PROP Whereas, pursuant to the second section of the act of Congress approved the 23d of March last, entitled "An act to authorize the President to accept for citizens of the United States the jurisdiction of certain tribunals in the Ottoman dominions and Egypt, established or to be established under the authority of the Sublime Porte and of the government of Egypt," the Presi dent is authorized, for the benefit of American citizens residing in the Turkish dominions, to accept the recent law of the Ottoman Porte ceding the right of foreigners possessing immovable property in said dominions; And whereas, pursuant to the authority thus in me vested, I have authorized George H. Boker, accredited as Minister Resident of the United States to the Ottoman Porte, to sign, on behalf of this Government, the Protocol accepting the law aforesaid of the said Ottoman Porte; which Protocol and law are, word for word, as follows: [Translation.] The United States of America and His Majesty the Sultan being desirous to establish by a special act the agreement entered upon between them regarding the admission of American citizens to the right of holding real estate granted to foreigners by the law promulgated on the 7th of Sepher, 1284 (January 18, 1867), have authorized: The President of the United States of America, George H. Boker, Minister Resident of the United States of America near the Sublime Porte, and His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, His Excellency A. Aarifi Pasha, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, to sign the Protocol which follows: PROTOCOL. Oct. 29, 1874. 18 Stat. L., 850. Preamble. 1874, March 23, ch. 62, § 2. Protocol. Rights of foreigners Ottoman Empire, &c. The law granting foreigners the right of holding real estate does not interfere with the immunities specified by the treaties, and which will continue to protect the person to hold real estate in and the movable property of foreigners who may become owners of real estate. As the exercise of this right of possessing real property may induce foreigners to establish themselves in larger numbers in the Ottoman Empire, the Imperial government thinks it proper to anticipate and to prevent the difficulties to which the application of this law may give rise in certain localities. Such is the object of the arrangements which follow. The domicile of any person residing upon the Ottoman soil being inviolable, and as no one can enter it without the consent of the owner, except by virtue of orders emanating from competent authority, and with the assistance of the magistrate or functionary invested with the necessary powers, the residence of foreigners is inviolable on the same principle, in conformity with the treaties, and the agents of the public force cannot enter it without the assistance of the consul or of the delegate of the consul of the power on which the foreigner depends. By residence we understand the house of inhabitation and its dependencies: that is to say, the out-houses, courts, gardens, and neighboring enclosures, to the exclusion of all other parts of the property. In the localities distant by less than nine hours' journey from the consular residence, the agents of the public force cannot enter the residence of a foreigner without the assistance of a consul, as was before said. On his part the consul is bound to give his immediate assistance to the local authority, so as not to let six hours elapse between the moment which he may be informed and the moment of his departure, or the departure of his delegate, so that the action of the authorities may never be suspended more than twenty-four hours. -as to domicile. Residence defined. -not to be entered by police without assist ance of consul, when. Duty of consul. Residence; when lice with assistance of elders of commune. In the localities distant by nine hours or more than nine hours of travel from the may be entered by po residence of the consular agent, the agents of the public force may, on the request of the local authority, and with the assistance of three members of the Council of the Elders of the Commune, enter into the residence of a foreigner, without being assisted by the consular agent, but only in case of urgency, and for the search and the proof of the crime of murder, of attempt at murder, of incendiarism, of armed robbery either with infraction or by night in an inhabited house, of armed rebellion, and of the fabrication of counterfeit money; and this entry may be made whether the crime was committed by a foreigner or by an Ottoman subject, and whether it took place in the residence of a foreigner or not in his residence, or in any other place. Application of regu. lations to residence. Beyond residence, action of police to be free, &c. Domiciliary visits to be under procès-verbal, &c. Special regulations. Cases in which for eigners are subject to jurisdiction of local ance of consular dele. officers without assist gate. -right of appeal. Execution not to be enforced without cooperation of consul, &c. Rules of procedure. Foreigners may sub These regulations are not applicable but to the parts of the real estate which constitute the residence, as it has been heretofore defined. Beyond the residence, the action of the police shall be exercised freely and without reserve; but in case a person charged with crime or offence should be arrested, and the accused shall be a foreigner, the immunities attached to his person shall be observed in respect to him. The functionary or the officer charged with the accomplishment of a domiciliary visit, in the exceptional circumstances determined before, and the members of the Council of Elders who shall assist him will be obliged to make out a procès-verbal of the domiciliary visit, and to communicate it immediately to the superior authority under whose jurisdiction they are, and the latter shall transmit it to the nearest consular agent, without delay. A special regulation will be promulgated by the Sublime Porte, to determine the mode of action of the local police in the several cases provided heretofore. In localities more distant than nine hours' travel from the residence of the consular agent, in which the law of the judicial organization of the Velayet may be in force, foreigners shall be tried without the assistance of the consular delegate by the Council of Elders fulfilling the function of justices of the peace, and by the tribunal of the canton, as well for actions not exceeding one thousand piastres as for offences entailing a fine of five hundred piastres only at the maximum. Foreigners shall have, in any case, the right of appeal to the tribunal of the arrondissement against the judgments issued as above stated, and the appeal shall be followed and judged with the assistance of the consul, in conformity with the treaties. The appeal shall always suspend the execution of a sentence. In all cases the forcible execution of the judgments, issued on the conditions determined heretofore, shall not take place without the coöperation of the consul or of his delegate. The Imperial government will enact a law which shall determine the rules of procedure to be observed by the parties, in the application of the preceding regulations. Foreigners, in whatever locality they may be, may freely submit themselves to the mit to jurisdiction of jurisdiction of the Council of Elders or of the tribunal of the canton, without the elders and tribunals of assistance of the consul, in cases which do not exceed the competency of these councanton with right of cils or tribunals, reserving always the right of appeal before the tribunal of the arrondissement, where the case may be brought and tried with the assistance of the consul or his delegate. appeal. The consent of a foreigner to be tried as above stated, without the assistance of his consul, shall always be given in writing, and in advance of all procedure. It is well understood that all these restrictions do not concern cases which have for their object questions of real estate, which shall be tried and determined under the conditions established by the law. The right of defence and the publicity of the hearings shall be assured in all cases to foreigners who may appear before the Ottoman tribunals, as well as to Ottoman subjects. The preceding dispositions shall remain in force until the revision of the ancient treaties, a revision which the Sublime Porte reserves to itself the right to bring about hereafter by an understanding between it and the friendly Powers. In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the Protocol, and have affixed thereto their seals. Done at Constantinople the eleventh of August, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-four. (Signed:) A. AARIFI. [L. S.] (Signed:) GEO. H. BOKER. [L. S.] [Translation.] Law conceding to foreigners the right of holding real estate in the Ottoman Empire. Imperial Rescript.-Let it be done in conformity with the contents. 7 Sepher, 1284, (January 18, 1867.) With the object of developing the prosperity of the country, to put an end to the difficulties, to the abuses, and to the uncertainties which have arisen on the subject of the right of foreigners to hold property in the Ottoman Empire, and to complete, in accordance with a precise regulation, the safeguards which are due to financial interests and to administrative action, the following legislative enactments have been promulgated by the order of His Imperial Majesty, the Sultan: ART. I. Foreigners are admitted, by the same privilege as Ottoman subjects, and without any other restriction, to enjoy the right of holding real estate, whether in the city or the country, throughout the empire, with the exception of the province of Hédjaz, by submitting themselves to the laws and the regulations which govern Ottoman subjects, as is hereafter stated. This arrangement does not concern subjects of Ottoman birth who have changed their nationality, who shall be governed in this matter by a special law. ART. II. Foreigners, proprietors of real estate, in town or in country, are in consequence placed upon terms of equality with Ottoman subjects in all things that concern their landed property. The legal effect of this equality is Arrangement does not concern Ottoman subjects who have changed nationality. Effect of such right is 1st. To oblige them to conform to all the laws and regulations of the police or of -to oblige them to the municipality which govern at present or may govern hereafter the enjoyment, the conform to the laws, transmission, the alienation, and the hypothecation of landed property. &c. -to pay charges and taxes. -to render them 2d. To pay all charges and taxes under whatever form or denomination they may be, that are levied, or may be levied hereafter, upon city or country property. 3d. To render them directly amenable to the Ottoman civil tribunals in all questions relating to landed property, and in all real actions, whether as plaintiffs or as amenable to civil tridefendants, even when either party is a foreigner. In short, they are in all things to bunals in real actions, hold real estate by the same title, on the same condition, and under the same forms as Ottoman owners, and without being able to avail themselves of their personal nationality, except under the reserve of the immunities attached to their persons and their movable goods, according to the treaties. &c. In case of bank ART. III. In case of the bankruptcy of a foreigner possessing real estate, the assignees of the bankrupt may apply to the authorities and to the Ottoman civil tri- ruptcy of holder of real estate; proceedings. bunals requiring the sale of the real estate possessed by the bankrupt and which by its nature and according to law is responsible for the debts of the owner. The same course shall be followed when a foreigner shall have obtained against another foreigner owning real estate a judgment of condemnation before a foreign tri bunal. Execution of judg For the execution of this judgment against the real estate of his debtor, he shall apply to the competent Ottoman authorities, in order to obtain the sale of that real ment against real es estate, which is responsible for the debts of the owner; and this judgment shall be tate. executed by the Ottoman authorities and tribunals only after they have decided that the real estate of which the sale is required really belongs to the category of that property which may be sold for the payment of debt. ART. IV. Foreigners have the privilege to dispose, by donation or by testament, of that real estate of which such disposition is permitted by law. As to that real estate of which they may not have disposed, or of which the law does not permit them to dispose by gift or testament, its succession shall be governed in accordance with Ottoman law. Real estate may be disposed of by will and otherwise in certain cases. ART. V. All foreigners shall enjoy the privileges of the present law as soon as the When privileges may Powers on which they depend shall agree to the arrangements proposed by the Sub- be enjoyed. lime Porte for the exercise of the right to hold real estate. Proclaimed by Now, therefore, be it known that I, ULYSSES S. GRANT, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Protocol and Law the President. to be made public for the information and guidance of citizens of the United States. [October 29, 1874.] 1876-NUMBER 3. [SUSPENDING CERTAIN JUDICIAL FUNCTIONS OF MINISTERS AND CONSULAR OFFICERS March 27, 1876. IN EGYPT.] 19 Stat. L., 662. Certain judicial functions of ministers, consuls, Preamble. 1874, March 23, ch. 62, § 1. Whereas by the first section of an Act entitled "An Act to authorize the Preamble. "President to accept for citizens of the United States the jurisdiction of cer- 4091, 4098-4121, R. S., § 4083"tain tribunals in the Ottoman Dominions, and Egypt, established, or to be 4125.' “established, under the authority of the Sublime Porte, and of the Govern "ment of Egypt," approved March 23, 1874, it was enacted as follows: "That whenever the President of the United States shall receive satisfac"tory information that the Ottoman Government, or that of Egypt, has or"ganized other tribunals on a basis likely to secure to citizens of the United "States, in their dominions, the same impartial justice which they now en"joy there under the judicial functions exercised by the Minister, Consuls, "and other functionaries of the United States, pursuant to the Act of Con66 gress approved the twenty-second of June, eighteen hundred and sixty, en"titled An Act to carry into effect provisions of the treaties between the "United States, China, Persia and other countries, giving certain judical "powers to Ministers and Consuls, or other functionaries of the United ed. "States in those countries, and for other purposes,' he is hereby authorized "to suspend the operations of said acts as to the dominions in which such "tribunals may be organized, so far as the jurisdiction of said tribunals 66 may embrace matters now cognizable by the Minister, Consuls, or other "functionaries of the United States in said dominions, and to notify the "Government of the Sublime Porte, or that of Egypt, or either of them, "that the United States, during such suspension, will as aforesaid accept "for their citizens the jurisdiction of the tribunals aforesaid over citizens of "the United States which has heretofore been exercised by the Minister, "Consuls, or other functionaries of the United States.” And whereas satisfactory information has been received by me that the Government of Egypt has organized other tribunals on a basis likely to secure to citizens of the United States in the dominions subject to such government the impartial justice which they now enjoy there under the judicial functions exercised by the Minister, Consul or other functionaries of the United States, pursuant to the said Act of Congress approved June 22, 1860.(1) Certain judicial Now, therefore, I, ULYSSES S. GRANT, President of the United States functions of minis- of America, by virtue of the power and authority conferred upon me by ters, consuls, &c., the said act approved March 23, 1874, do hereby suspend during the in Egypt suspendpleasure of the President the operation of the said Act approved June R. S., §§ 4083-22, 1860, (1) as to the said dominions, subject to the Government of Egypt 4091, 4090-4121, in which such tribunals have been organized so far as the jurisdiction of said tribunals may embrace matters now cognizable by the Minister, Consuls, or other functionaries of the United States in said dominions, except as to cases actually commenced before the date hereof. [March 27, 1876.] 4125. 1874, March 23, ch. 62. NOTE.-(1) The provisions of the act of 1860, ch. 179 (12 Stat. L., 72), are incorporated into Revised 1876-NUMBER 6. [DECLARING THE ADMISSION OF COLORADO AS A STATE IN THE UNION COMPLETE.] Whereas the Congress of the United States did, by an act approved on the third day of March, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, authorize the inhabitants of the Territory of Colorado to form for themselves out of said Territory a State Government with the name of the State of Colorado, and for the admission of such State into the Union, on an equal footing with the original States, upon certain conditions in said act specified; And whereas it was provided by said act of Congress that the convention elected by the people of said Territory to frame a State constitution should, when assembled for that purpose and after organization, declare on behalf of the people that they adopt the constitution of the United States, and should also provide by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said State, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured, and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, and that the people inhabiting said Territory do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated publie lands lying within said Territory and that the same shall be and remain at the sole and entire disposition of the United States, and that the lands belonging to citizens of the United States residing without the said State shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to residents thereof, and that no taxes shall be imposed by the State on lands or property therein belonging to or which may hereafter be purchased by the United States; And whereas it was further provided by said act that the constitution thus formed for the people of the Territory of Colorado should, by an ordinance of the convention forming the same, be submitted to the people of said Territory for ratification or rejection at an election to be held in the month of July, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, at which election the lawful voters of said new State should vote directly for or against the proposed constitution, and the returns of said election should be made to the acting Governor of the Territory, who with the Chief Justice and the United States Attorney of said Territory or any two of them should canvass the same, and if a majority of legal votes should be cast for said constitution in said proposed State, the said acting Governor should certify the same to the President of the United States, together with a copy of said constitution and ordinances; whereupon it should be the duty of the President of the United States to issue his proclamation declaring the State admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, without any further action whatever on the part of Congress; And whereas it has been certified to me by the acting Governor of said Territory of Colorado, that within the time prescribed by said act of Congress a constitution for said proposed State has been adopted, and the same ratified by a majority of the legal voters of said proposed new State in accordance with the conditions prescribed by said act of Congress; Colorado pro And whereas a duly authenticated copy of said Constitution and of the declaration and ordinance required by said act has been received by me: Now, therefore, I, ULYSSES S. GRANT, President of the United States of America, do, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress claimed a State of aforesaid, declare and proclaim the fact that the fundamental conditions imposed by Congress on the State of Colorado to entitle that State to admission to the Union have been ratified and accepted, and that the admission of the said State into the Union is now complete. [August 1, 1876.] the Union. 1876, June 26, ch. 147. 1876-NUMBER 7. [PROCLAIMING THE CONVENTION OF COMMERCIAL RECIPROCITY WITH THE HAWAIIAN Whereas by Article V of a Convention concluded at Washington upon the 30th day of January, 1875, between the United States of America and His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, it was provided as follows, viz: Sept. 9, 1876. 19 Stat. L., 666. Preamble. Convention for waiian or Sand "The present Convention shall take effect as soon as it shall have been "approved and proclaimed by His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian commercial reci"Islands, and shall have been ratified and duly proclaimed on the part of procity with Ha"the Government of the United States, but not until a law to carry it into wich Islands. "operation shall have been passed by the Congress of the United States "of America. 66 "Such assent having been given and the ratifications of the Convention "having been exchanged as provided in Article VI, the Convention shall "remain in force for seven years from the date at which it may come into "operation; and further, until the expiration of twelve months after either "of the high contracting parties shall give notice to the other of its wish to "terminate the same; each of the high contracting parties being at liberty "to give such notice to the other at the end of the said term of seven years, "or at any time thereafter." And whereas such Convention has been approved and proclaimed by His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands and has been ratified and duly proclaimed on the part of the United States, and a law to carry the same See Articles of treaty p. 629. |