Memorandum from the Earl of Malmesbury (James Harris) to James Finn, Nov. 8, 1852.

F.O. 78/913 (No.5) Foreign Office, 8th November, 1852

I have received your Despatch No.8 of the 18th of September respecting the protection of Russian Jews.

You will have received my Despatch No. 3 of the 9th of September in answer to your Despatch No. 5 of the 9th of August on that subject.

I do not approve of Your having published the Notices respecting Russian Jews to which you refer in your Despatch No. 8.- You entirely misunderstand the position in which you are placed in regard to this matter; but to prevent any future misconception on your part, I have now to state to you that you are not to enter into any Correspondence with the Russian Consulate as to the conditions or the manner in which that Consulate may renounce the protection of Russian Jews; and you are not to take any steps either with the Jewish Rabbis or with individual Jews to encourage those Jews who may be discarded by the Russian Consulate to come to the British Consulate for protection.

Her Majesty’s Government would much prefer that such Jews should not seek British protection, but Her Majesty’s Government will not withhold it from them if they -apply for it in a proper manner.

The only point in respect of which you are to satisfy yourself is, that a Russian Jew applying to you for protection has been discarded by his own Consulate; and as the proof of his being so discarded he must produce to you his Letter of dismissal from the Russian Consulate.
If he cannot produce such Letter you will decline to have anything to do with him.

The Descendants of Russian Jews who have thus been received under British Protection may properly be allowed thereafter to enjoy the same privilege without producing Letters of dismissal from the Russian Consulate, provided that at the time when their Parents were received under British Protection, they were under age and residing with their Parents- But if at any time the Russian Consulate should notify to the British Consulate its desire to renew its protection to a Russian Jew whom it may have previously cast off, or may claim to extend its protection to the Descendants of such person, even though it may have continued to withhold it from their parent, the British Consulate must without demur withdraw its protection, and leave the parties to the protection of their own national authority.

The nature and degree of protection which you may extend to Russian Jews when formally and regularly enrolled under British protection, must be limited to defending them against manifest Turkish oppression, but must not extend to defending them against the just consequences of any crime which they may commit. A British Consul has no legal power to try any person who is not in the strictest acceptation of the term a British subject, and if Russian Jews or their Descendants, while under British protection commit crimes, they must be prepared to answer for them before the Turkish Tribunals, which alone, in default of their being claimed by the Russian Consulate, can so far as the British Consulate is concerned, be deemed competent to try, and, on conviction, to punish them.

In civil cases if a Russian Jew under British Protection desires that a suit instituted against him by any other than a British Subject should be heard by the British Consulate, he must be required to give security that he will abide by the decision which that Consulate may pronounce; but if the Plaintiff in a Civil Suit is a British Subject, the Russian Jew Defendant under British Protection must agree to have his suit tried in the British Court, and to abide by the decision of that Court, under penalty, in case of refusal, of forfeiting British Protection altogether.