* * * *

The exact national status of the persons on whom it is conferred is not
easy to define, but in the Foreign Jurisdiction Orders in Council they
are assimilated with "British subjects" so far as British exterritorial
jurisdiction is concerned,[95] and this roughly has been the practice of
all States exercising Consular Protection.

The system lent itself easily to abuse and fraud, chiefly because
exterritoriality in the countries in which it was exercised generally
carried with it immunity not only from arbitrary exactions but also from
ordinary taxation. Moreover, in the case of native Jews who often
suffered from Moslem fanaticism--chiefly in Morocco and Persia--Consular
Protection was exercised from motives of humanity, and for that purpose
more or less fictitious qualifications were found for them. We get a
curious glimpse of the loose way in which Consular Protection was
granted from the Anglo-Turkish Treaty of 1809. Under the Capitulations
(Arts. LIX and LX) native interpreters and servants of the Embassy were
free of taxes and indeed of Turkish jurisdiction generally. By the
Treaty of 1809 (Art. IX) it was agreed that in future the _berats_ of
interpreters should not issue to "artizans, shopkeepers, bankers and
other persons not acting as interpreters."[96] Owing to this stipulation
and the sensitiveness of the Porte in regard to its jurisdiction over
its own subjects, irregular Protections were discontinued in Turkey.
This, however, was not a source of serious grievance to Jews, as on the
whole they have been extremely well treated in the Ottoman Empire.

It is not generally known--and the fact may prove of peculiar importance
at the present moment--that all Russian Jews settled in Palestine are,
on certain conditions, entitled to claim British protection and so much
of the status of British subjects as this privilege implies. In 1849,
when there was a considerable influx of Russian Jews into Jerusalem, the
Russian Government, having no Consul in the city and for other reasons,
desired to get rid of the responsibility of protecting them. Accordingly
an arrangement was arrived at between the British and Russian
authorities permitting such Jews, on receiving papers of dismissal from
their Russian allegiance from the Vice-Consul at Jaffa, to register at
the British Consulate as British proteges. A large number availed
themselves of the privilege. There is nothing to show that the Agree