"These certificates derive their validity from joint issuance by the consul and the local Chinese authority, but the initiative in issuing them belongs to the consul, and the Chinese cannot refuse to countersign them. "These certificates are moreover not merely temporary and local, but are limited to the particular journey to be undertaken in China. When the specified time expires, or the journey is performed, the certificate loses validity and another must be issued if the bearer wishes to continue in the interior or make another journey thither. "All this points to an instrument which supplements an ordinary general passport which every nation has the independent right to issue to its subjects and which other nations may disregard at their peril. "The Chinese certificates are at the most merely transit passes. "We have, however, decided many times that no such pass or certificate, which carries on its face recognition of the bearer's nationality, can be issued in lieu of a regular passport as prescribed by statute. "It is not, however, to be expected that an American citizen is to be required to take out a new passport every time he journeys more than 30 miles inland from a treaty port, and be compelled to pay $5.00 each time. "The true solution would seem to be to provide for the issuance by the consuls of a form of limited transit certificates, but only on presentation of a passport previously issued by the legation, or upon filing a duly attested application for a passport, with evidence of citizenship, accompanied by the legal fees. "An American citizen's rights, once established, would entitle him to a transit pass from the consul, in conformity with the British treaty, without the necessity of referring the application to the legation, and without the necessity of paying a new passport fee each time. "To avoid the difficulties and delays complained of, and which are shown to be excessive, the transit certificate may be given when the formalities for a legal issue of a passport have been complied with. "The passport, when issued by the legation, could be sent to the consul, to be by him retained as his warrant for the issuance of the certificate or transit pass until the party returns. In case the legation refuses to issue a passport the consul should notify the local authorities that the certificate is cancelled. The knowledge that the certificate is liable to be so cancelled would seem to be a sufficient safeguard against mala fides in applying for one. "In order that there may be uniformity of action, you are instructed to prepare a form of consular travel certificate (to be put into Chinese and printed in parallel columns), and submit the draft thereof for the consideration and action of this Department.' Mr. Frelinghuysen, Sec. of State, to Mr. Young, min. to China, No. 379, "I have received your No. 22, of May, 15 last, accompanied by a form of consular travel certificate, in the English and Chinese languages, to be issued to American citizens desiring to visit the interior of China, such certificates to be good for one year, and in every case where the particular journey is not stated, the number of provinces in which the holder may travel is to be restricted to five. In case any of our citizens,' you say, 'should desire to make an exceptional journey, a special pass should in every instance be obtained.' "Your dispatch has, accordingly, had attentive consideration and the amendments suggested by you appear to meet the case fully. The certificate system, with the checks and restrictions now imposed, may be put into operation." Mr. Bayard, Sec. of State, to Mr. Smithers, chargé, No. 448, July 15, 1885, MS. Inst. China, IV. 63. "Your opinion that travel certificates, when issued by consuls to parties who have applied for passports, but who are anxious to depart on a journey into the interior before their application can be acted upon by your legation, should be limited to be good only for such journey, was fully set forth in your No. 1018 of December 30, 1889, and has already received the approval of the Department in its instruction No. 498 of February 20, 1890. "In cases, therefore, where travel certificates are required by the local authorities they may be issued by United States consuls in China to two classes of persons: "(1) Those who possess American passports; and, "(2) Those who have actually and regularly applied for such passports. "No objection is now perceived to the continuance of the present practice of issuing to those who come within the first of these categories travel certificates good for one year; and great hardships might, as pointed out in Mr. Smithers's No. 22 of May 15, 1885, be imposed upon them, especially when engaged as missionaries at a distance from any consulate, by the adoption of any other rule. "But with regard to the second class, where of necessity the validity of the travel certificate is conditioned upon the subsequent issuance of the passport, it is eminently proper that the efficacy of the certificate should be narrowly restricted. It is therefore deemed advisable that the certificate issued to such parties should be ex § 531.] LOCAL PAPERS. 1013 pressed to be good only for the particular journey, and not longer than one year. Mr. Blaine, Sec. of State, to Mr. Denby, min. to China, No. 523, May 6, 1890, For. Rel. 1890, 182. With this instruction there is printed a circular of the Department of State to consuls in China, of May 1, 1890, in relation to the issuance of travel certificates. The form of the certificate is annexed to the circular. See, also, Consular Regulations of the United States, 1896, § 167, and forms 181 and 182. The issuance of the travel certificate has been held to be an official service, for which no fee is to be charged, except under regulation of the Department of State. (Mr. Hay, Sec. of State, to Mr. Conger, min. to China, No. 188, June 24, 1899, MS. Inst. China, VI. 1.) In 1893 and 1894 Mr. Denby, then American minister at Peking, conducted, as dean of the diplomatic corps, a correspondence with the Tsung-li-Yamên, concerning its request that the foreign representatives devise a plan whereby foreigners traveling in China should be required to report in person to the magistrates through whose jurisdiction they might pass. In a note to the Tsung-li-Yamên, Mr. Denby stated that it would be impracticable for all foreigners when traveling in China to make such a report in person, and that the penalty suggested, that of a failure of protection, was by no means admissible. A more serious objection, however, and one which was considered insuperable, was that the proposed change would materially impair the rights of the powers under Art. IX. of the British treaty of 1858. By that article, the passports issued thereunder, "if demanded, must be produced for examination in the localities passed through. If the passport be not irregular, the bearer will be allowed to proceed." Article XVIII. of the same treaty provides that the Chinese authorities shall, at all times, afford the fullest protection to the persons and property of British subjects." As the request of the Chinese Government would involve a change in these treaties, the foreign representatives were without power to comply with the Government's request. The Tsung-li-Yamên, in reply, maintained that its proposal was clearly in conformity with the provision that passports, if demanded, must be produced for examination, and that, if the passport was not irregular, the bearer would be allowed to proceed. The examination of passports as provided by the treaty was, said the Yamên, "the same as reporting in person to the authorities." From this position the diplomatic corps dissented, their contention being that by the treaties passports need only be shown when an examination of them was properly demanded, while under the Chi 1014 PASSPORTS. [S 531. nese construction travelers would be compelled to seek out the local authorities in every city and report to them. The Yamên alleged that foreigners had sometimes secretly withheld their passports when requested to show them, and that they had also recklessly gone into the interior without passports. The diplomatic corps replied that such conduct was disapproved by the foreign representatives; and suggested that if the prince and ministers should adopt some regulation in regard to the exhibition of passports to the principal authorities, on demand, in district or prefectural cities, the foreign representatives would consider it carefully, and, if it was approved, would make it known to travelers through the consuls and enjoin compliance with it. For. Rel. 1893, 241, 244; For. Rel. 1894, 152-160. Mr. Denby, in a note to the Tsung li Yamên, July 12, 1897, again maintaining the rights of the powers under the British treaty of 1858, said: "The passports should state the names of the provinces in which the bearer thereof proposes to travel. It is impracticable to state the route that he will follow. "Different systems prevail in the various countries as to issuing pass- The position maintained by the diplomatic corps in 1893-1894 is reaf- Transit passes, for the protection from likin taxes of goods purchased in the interior of China by foreigners, are issued by the superintendent of the Imperial Maritime Customs at the port of exportation to merchants who apply for them through their respective consulates and give the prescribed bond. The goods, on arriving at the port of exportation, are examined by the customs officials and one-half of the export duties are paid by the shipper, after which the goods are ready for exportation, which must take place within six months. If not exported within that time, the merchant must pay the customs a sum equivalent to two and one-half times the export duty, after which he is released from the obligation to export. This is the procedure at Canton, and it is understood to be similar at other Chinese ports. No consular fee is charged for obtaining the pass, or for authenticating the export bond. In applying for a pass, the consul must be satisfied that the merchandise is actually the property of the American citizen in whose name the pass is to be issued. No special form of power of attorney is required to enable the agent in China of an American citizen to procure a pass. Mr. Cridler, Third Assist. Sec. of State, to the Seeger & Guernsey Co., See as to practice at other times and places, Mr. Denby, min. to China, Much fraud has been practiced in the use of such passes. (Mr. Adee, The habit of obtaining transit passes by American citizens for Chinese XII. WAR REGULATIONS. 1. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR. a $ 532. By a regulation of the Department of State of Aug. 19, 1861, "no person was allowed to go abroad from a port of the United States without a passport either from this Department or countersigned by the Secretary of State, nor any person allowed to land in the United States without a passport from a minister or consul of the United States, or, if a foreigner, from his own Government, countersigned by such minister or cousul." In order to facilitate the execution of this regulation, Oscar Irving and Jonathan Amory, respectively dispatch agents at New York and Boston, were also appointed, Aug. 22, 1861, agents for the issuance of passports, and were provided with forms, signed in blank. Sept. 12, 1861, E. L. O. Adams was appointed confidential agent of the Department of State at Portland, Me., with authority to issue passports. He was instructed, however, that the chief object of his appointment was to prevent persons in the insurgent service from going to and from Canada. Any such persons, if he knew them, or if he received a report of them from the Department of State, by letter or telegram, he was to cause to be a Circular to Consuls, March 17, 1862, MS. Circulars, I. 194. |