Were the Department in possession of a copy of the note referred to it could more readily reach a decision in the matter; but assuming its purport to be as represented by you there would seem to be no objection to Mr. Smith being furnished with a certified copy thereof. The full text should be sent to the Department. I am, etc., EDWIN F. UHL, No. 181.] Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor, pursuant to instructions contained in your dispatch, No. 151, of December 28, 1893, to inclose a copy of a note received from the imperial department of foreign affairs, relating to the rights of Americans to acquire and hold real estate in Russia. In accordance with the permission granted in your dispatch as above, I have forwarded to L. H. Smith, esq., an American doing business at Vladivostock and in the Amoor region, a certified copy of the same for use with the authorities. The matter of acquiring real estate does not appear so easy in practice as the inclosed note would make it in theory. In all parts of Russia not only laws, but special prescriptions, limitations, arrangements, and orders of various civil and military authorities have more or less force, and the result of this case is, that Mr. Smith, though aided by lawyers, has found it impossible to secure permission to buy real estate without such a certified copy. I am, etc., [Inclosure in No. 181.] ANDREW D. WHITE. Mr. Chichkine to Mr. White. ST. PETERSBURG, May 13/25, 1893. Mr. MINISTER: In a note dated the 1/13 of April you ask me to inform you of the state of the Russian law on the question: Can citizens of the United States of America hold real estate in Russia. Accordingly I have the honor to inform you that citizens of the United States have the right, in virtue of the laws of the Empire and under the same conditions as all strangers, to acquire and possess real estate in Russia subject to certain restrictions, as set forth in article 1003 of volume 9 of our Code of Laws. These restrictions bear upon the holding of real estate in the province of Turkestan (law of 12 June, 1886) and of land outside the city limits in the ten governments of Poland, and in the governments of Bessarabia, Vilna, Vitebsk, of Volhynia, Grodno, Kieff, Kowno, of Courland, of Livonia, Minsk, and of Podolia (law of 14 March, 1887). I beg to renew, etc., CHICHKINE CASE OF STANISLAUS C. KRZEMINSKI, CONDEMNED TO EXILE TO No. 208.] SIBERIA. Mr. Uhl to Mr. White. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I inclose copies of two letters1 received from Mr. W. W. Saperston and Mr. B. B. Bloch, reporting the case of Stanislaus C. Krzeminski, a native of Russian-Poland, and alleged to be a naturalized American citizen, who, on returning to Russia during the spring of this year, is said to have been arrested and, without trial, exiled to the salt mines in Siberia. I also inclose copy1 of Department's reply to Mr. Saperston. You are instructed to investigate the case, and if Mr. Krzeminski's American citizenship be established and the facts warrant it, you will do everything in your power to save this unfortunate man from the severe (and in the case of a naturalized American citizen, extraordinary) penalty of exile to the Siberian mines. Referring instruction mailed 18th, Krzeminski citizenship estab lished. Naturalized Newark, N. J., October 14, 1874. Continuously resided here twenty-five years. Received passport March 1, this year; name spelled Kozeminski by mistake. Never called Frank: son so known, which has given rise to confusion. The father well known and highly respected. Petition addressed to me signed by several hundred influential representatives of State and city governments, bench, bar, and mercantile community of western New York. President deems it important that you use utmost endeavors to obtain reversal of Siberian sentence, if it be a fact, which is doubted, and permission to quit Russia. Report action by telegraph. Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. [Telegram.] ST. PETERSBURG, July 2, 1894. Your cipher telegram received. Case shall be attended to at once fully. 1 Not printed. No. 239.] Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES. St. Petersburg, July 2, 1894. (Received July 17.) SIR: I have the honor to receive your dispatch No. 208, of June 18, 1894, with inclosures relative to Stanislaus F. Krzeminski, otherwise known as S. F. Kozeminski, and S. C. Frank; also your cipher dispatch, presumably of July 1, referring to the same case. To the latter I have cabled you a reply and have written to the imperial minister of foreign affairs stating the case, asking for any information in possession of this Government, and urging that the man be allowed to return to the United States. I shall call at the foreign office personally, as soon as possible, and have a conversation with the acting minister on the subject, and I may then be able to urge some considerations which can be presented, perhaps, more cogently verbally than in writing. All that I can do in the matter shall be done. I am, etc., ANDREW D. WHITE. Mr. Gresham to Mr. White. No. 216.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: referring to the Department's instruction, No. 208, of the 18th ultimo, in regard to the alleged arrest and deportation to Siberia of Stanislaus F. Krzeminski by the authorities of Lowicz, Piotrkow, I now send you a certified copy of Mr. Krzeminski's certificate of naturalization. The statements of Mr. Saperston's letter, of which copy was sent to you with Mr. Uhl's No. 208, were in some respects inaccurate as to the facts and antecedents of the case. By the application upon which passport No. 7,725 was issued to Stanislaus F. Krzeminski, on the 1st of March last, it appears that he was born in Poland March 28, 1833; that he came to the United States on the steamship Germania from Hamburg in 1868; that he resided continuously in this country for the succeeding twenty-six years, and that he was lawfully naturalized at Newark, N. J., on October 14, 1874, as appears from the certificate herewith sent you. Owing to a clerical error his name is given in the passport as Stanislau F. Kozeminski. Since Mr. Krzeminski became invested with American citizenship, nearly twenty years ago, his reputation among business men has been good. A numerously signed petition in his behalf-of which a copy1 is inclosed-was filed in this Department on the 28th ultimo by the Hon. Owen A. Welles, M. C. It shows the widespread interest felt in the fate of this highly respected citizen by reputable men speaking whereof they know. Mr. Krzeminski's son, who has legally taken the name of Stanislaus C. Frank, and who bears a good commercial reputation in Buffalo, furnishes the affidavit1 which will be found among the inclosed papers. The files of your legation show many instances where this Government has intervened in behalf of naturalized citizens of Russian origin, who, on returning to Russia with passports, have been denied the treat Not printed. ment which this country reasonably expects will be accorded its citizens, native and naturalized. If the facts in Mr. Krzeminski's case be as stated, his exile to Siberia, for no reason save his having quitted his native country some thirty years ago without imperial consent, would entail a hardship calling for earnest remonstrance. The course your representations should take is in a great measure to be determined by you on the spot. You will briefly report by cable the course of this matter and the result of your intervention. A telegram on this subject was sent to you on the 30th ultimo, and its text is confirmed in another instruction of the 2d instant. I am, etc., Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. [Telegram.] W. Q. GRESHAM. ST. PETERSBURG, July 18, 1894. Referring to your dispatch No. 216, have just seen acting minister for foreign affairs and have had most earnest talk with him. He expresses doubts as to facts alleged, but promises to do everything possible to meet our views speedily. No. 243.] Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, July 18, 1894. (Received July 31.) SIR: Having received your dispatch No. 216, with inclosures relating to Stanislaus F. Krzeminski, and having written a note to the imperial department of foreign affairs, giving the latest details regarding his case as furnished by you, I this afternoon called on the acting minister of foreign affairs, Mr. Chichkine, and presented the case to him verbally. I showed him the evident hardship of the case-if the facts were at all as alleged; dwelt on the danger of ill feeling growing up out of cases of this kind, and this in particular; showed him the embarrassment thus caused our Government and the danger of increasing embarrassment to both sides, and urged that the man, if found, be released at the earliest moment possible. Mr. Chichkine seemed to realize the situation, his former official residence at Washington enabling him to understand me all the more fully. He said that the ministry of foreign affairs was urging the ministry of the interior to examine and report at the earliest moment possible, and that he would renew an urgent request to this effect to that ministry. He expressed strong doubts as to the alleged facts, especially as to the banishment of Mr. Krzeminski to Siberia, and spoke of the very grave difficulties of such cases at the present moment, when there is an evident increase in anarchist attempts, and especially in the region where, as it is claimed, Mr. Krzeminski has been arrested. To this I answered that the papers forwarded by you showed that Mr. Krzeminski had, during all these years of his residence in the United States, led a quiet life, devoted to his business, and had won the respect of those who knew him best, and that the reason for his return to Poland, as alleged, was perfectly simple and natural. I also laid stress upon the high character and numbers of the signers of the Buffalo petition, and insisted that had he or his son ever shown any anarchist tendencies no such papers could have been obtained, especially at the present moment, when the feeling against anarchist doctrines is so bitter in the classes so fully represented in the petition; and I renewed my statement regarding the serious menace to proper relations between the two countries and the embarrassment caused our Government by an arrest of this sort, urging that prompt measures be taken for Mr. Krzeminski's release. Mr. Chichkine assured me that he realized the force of the considerations urged by me, would do all in his power to hasten a solution of the case, and that if there were no complications with anarchist conspiracies, he hoped that Mr. Kzreminski would soon be at liberty. I accordingly sent you the telegram. No endeavor of mine shall be spared to bring the case to a speedy and happy conclusion, and to this end I am now communicating informally with the imperial department of the interior. I am, etc., AND. D. WHITE. No. 247.] Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, July 30, 1894. (Received August 16.) SIR: Referring to your dispatches and mine in reply relating to Stanislaus Krzeminski, arrested by the police of the government of Petrokov, in Poland, I have just secured from the imperial ministry of the interior their report, which is in substance as follows: Stanislaus Krzeminski formerly had charge of the police tribunal of the district of Sloupetz, in the government of Kalisch; was convicted of crimes committed during his police service; then fled in 1868, and was condemned in 1871 to exile to Siberia. On March 20, 1894, he was arrested by the police in the government of Piotrkow, but the tribunal of Warsaw has refrained from putting into execution the sentence against him of the year 1871, and the ministry notifies me that it will apply for the pardon of Krzeminski, under the imperial manifesto of May 15, 1883, which was, as I understand it, a sort of amnesty then granted for certain classes of crimes. Should anything be received from the foreign office, I will at once communicate it to you. Under the above decision, there is every reason to expect that Krezminski will be set at liberty at some day not distant. I am, etc., AND. D. WHITE. No. 259.] Mr. White to Mr. Gresham. LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, St. Petersburg, August 29, 1894. (Received September 11.) SIR: An informal note has just reached me from the minister of the interior, conveying the same information regarding Stanislaus Krzeminski as that referred to in my last dispatch regarding him, namely, |