Baron Thielmann to Mr. Olney.

[Translation.]

Mr. Secretary of State: I have the honor to respectfully acknowledge the receipt of your note, No. 42, of September 26, ultimo, with regard to the case of the American citizen, Louis Stern, at Kissingen.

In reply to the views contained in your note I hasten to say that I reject (zurückweise) as entirely unjustified your excellency’s criticism of the sentence against Stern delivered by the court at Kissingen.

Especially must I decline to see the administration of justice within a state of the German Federal Union, and the right of pardon, which belongs to the princes of the German Federal Union, discussed in this way and treated in the form of a diplomatic claim.

So far as the United States Government desires to approach the Government of His Majesty, the German Emperor, in this matter touching one of its citizens, it must be left to it (United States Government) to make such approach through the United States ambassador at Berlin.

Accept, etc.,

Thielmann.