and most sincere sympathy of the Imperial Government in the great calamity which has befallen the Government and the people of the United States. G. DE WOLLANT. Mr. Hay to Prince Oblensky. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 16, 1901. I have received through Mr. Wollant your excellency's touching message of condolence on the part of the Imperial Government. In the name of the American people and their Government I thank you for this fraternal proof of sympathy from a nation so long friendly and so highly esteemed. JOHN HAY, Secretary of State. SERVIA. LIABILITY OF NATURALIZED CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES UNDER MILITARY AND EXPATRIATION LAWS OF THEIR NATIVE COUNTRY." DEPARTMENT OF STATE, NOTICE TO AMERICAN CITIZENS FORMERLY SUBJECTS OF SERVIA WHO CONTEMPLATE RETURNING TO THAT COUNTRY. The information given below is believed to be correct, yet is not to be considered as official, as it relates to the laws and regulations of a foreign country. Ordinarily all subjects of Servia are expected to perform at least two years' military service after they attain manhood. If a subject of Servia emigrates before he has fulfilled his military obligations the Servian Government does not recognize a change of nationality made without the consent of the King, and upon his return he may be subject to molestation. If, however, he performed his military service before emigration his acquisition of naturalization in the United States is recognized by the Servian Government. There is no treaty between the United States and Servia defining the status of naturalized Americans of Servian birth returning to Servia. Passports are rigorously required of all persons who desire to enter Servia. CONDOLENCES ON ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT M’KINLEY. Mr. Francis to Mr. Hay. No. 14.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to report that I was accorded a special audience to-day by King Alexander, upon which occasion His Majesty presented me to Her Majesty, Queen Draga. They both declared in strongest terms their horror at the murder of President McKinley and their sympathy for the American people in the great loss they have sustained by the death of a chief so wise and so good. Their majesties inquired particularly about Mrs. McKinley, and expressed for her the tenderest solicitude. King Alexander was evidently much gratified when I informed him that I had been requested by my Government in a cable dispatch received last evening to convey to His Majesty Mrs. McKinley's sincerest appreciation of his message of condolence. I am, etc., CHARLES S. FRANCIS. See instructions to Belgium, December 10, 1900, page 16. SIAM. CONDOLENCES ON ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT M'KINLEY. Prince Devawongse, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to Mr. Hay. [Telegram.] BANGKOK, September 16, 1901. His Majesty was deeply grieved to hear of the death of President McKinley, and commanded me to express through your excellency to the American nation his profound sympathy and that of his Government at this irreparable loss. DEVAWONGSE, Minister Foreign Affairs. Mr. Hay to Prince Devawongse. [Telegram.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, September 16, 1901. Please assure His Majesty that the sorrowing American people and Government appreciate his sympathetic message. JOHN HAY, Secretary of State. CONGRATULATIONS ON OCCASION OF NATIONAL HOLIDAY OF SIAM. The President to the King. [Telegram.] EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, November 15, 1901. I congratulate Your Majesty on this auspicious anniversary. 456 THEODORE ROOSEVELT. SPAIN. (SEE FOREIGN PROTECTION BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES Mr. Storer to Mr. Hay. No. 363.] LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES, SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of Department instruction No. 244," bearing date November 9, and containing the reading of cablegrams exchanged between this legation and the Department on the subject of evidences of citizenship presented by natives of Cuba, Porto Rico, and the Philippine Islands. While the final sentence of the instruction does not seem to be entirely in accord with the telegrams, so specific, which preceded that instruction upon the same subject, I have presumed that it was not intended to repeal or modify the purport of those telegrams, and have not, therefore, in any way informed the consular officers in this country of any instruction later than that of your telegram. The importance of this subject and the complications continually arising, both at this legation, at our various consular offices, and in the Government of Spain itself, leads me to lay before you as clearly as possible the problems presented. I do this also at the suggestion of more than one consular officer in Spain, who are of opinion that the Department may not be exactly advised of the details of the system recognized in your circular letter of May 2, 1899, and the changes that have been made, either by the authority of the War Department or of the provisional authorities, in the islands of Cuba and Porto Rico since the date of that circular letter. The theory, as it has been gathered by all the consular officers to whom it has been sent, as well as this legation, on which was based that instruction, was that the "cedula de vecindad" presented by natives of these islands, would be one issued by the authority in these islands. That, of course, was the case on my first arrival, and that equally, of course, by lapse of time has ceased to be the case at present. The "cedula de vecindad," under Spanish law which heretofore governed in all her colonies and still remains the law in Spain, is that a cedula of this character must be applied for by every citizen or native, of either the home country or of the colony, in which the applicant was resident at the time of the expiration of his former cedula. These papers have been and are issued for one year only, and the Spanish law has been quite severe, apparently, in punishing, both by fine and by indirect legal consequences, the failure to procure a new one at the end of the life of the old one. During the first few months of my stay there were presented to me for visé and registration, pursuant to your circular letter of May 2, 1899, only cedulas issued by what purported to be the competent authority in Cuba and in Porto Rico. Sometimes these persons presented also their birth certificate as the best identification, or had presumably done so at the time of granting the original cedula; and all subsequent cedulas were granted, as in our own passport system, on the presentation and surrender of the former. At divers times these cedulas were presented, in some cases without the addition of further evidence, and in some cases together with other evidence, after the lapse of one year from their date. In all these cases I have endeavored to exercise my best judgment to carry out the instruction of the Department to exercise the good offices of the legation for the protection of bona fide applicants, and refused to register or visé cedulas expired already, except where they were accompanied by satisfactory evidence of some other kind. The excuse was universally made by these people, and I have no doubt generally with entire accuracy, that this was all the cedula they could have, as they had been absent more than a year from Cuba or Porto Rico, as the case might be. After the lapse of a few months the applications began to come in to register and certify cedulas issued to persons described as natives of Cuba or Porto Rico, but issued here in Spain by the competent authority, which, generally speaking, are the municipal authorities of the various wards of a city like Madrid, the mayor of smaller cities, or the civil administration of provinces. I never have seen any cedula or other certificate of any kind issued to such people by any bureau or official of the Spanish General Government. I at first declined to recognize these, and even after I consented to allow them to be registered and noted I have always insisted on the production of other evidence, either written or oral, as to the real nativity of the applicant. The pressure was always brought to me that the applicant desiring to go either to Cuba or to Porto Rico had been or would be refused passage on any Spanish steamer without the visa of the cedula by some officer of the Government of the United States authorized for that purpose. I refused to believe this, as I could not understand why any paper issued by any authority of the Spanish Government in Spain should require the certification of the officer of any other nationality; but I was personally assured by Mr. Dupuy de Lome, when he was under secretary of state, that it was some maritime regulation of each port with which the General Government had nothing to do, and out of compassion for these people presenting these cedulas, who were helpless, having generally left the matter of visa until a day or two before they intended to sail, I have dealt with this matter liberally. From reports of consular officers, as well as inquiries made at the legation of applicants presenting these cedulas, I am convinced that there is a curious entanglement in all this procedure. The General Government of Spain informed me that so far from compelling any foreigner residing in Spain to pay for and receive a cedula de vecindad each year, that in their point of view no need exists for such foreigner either to demand or receive any such cedula. The authorities of the foreign office take the ground that the cedula de vecindad is intended only as a method, long recognized, of identification and protection in Spain of Spanish citizens or subjects, and also an indirect means of taxation for municipal and provincial purposes. They say that the |