File No. 406/22.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Collier.
Washington, February 18, 1907.
Sir: In the year 1895, by means of an exchange of notes between the consul-general of the United States and the British minister at [Page 249] Tangier, an agreement was entered into between the United States and Great Britain for the protection in Morocco of American trademarks registered in Great Britain and British trade-marks registered in the United States against infringement by persons subject to the jurisdiction of the consular courts of the two nations, parties to the agreement, action for infringement lying in those courts.
In 1901 a similar agreement was concluded between the United States and the German Empire, and in 1904 between the United States and Italy.
In 1905 similar agreements were concluded between the United States and some of the European powers applying to the Chinese Empire.
It appears from a recent dispatch from the American minister at Peking (copy inclosed) that he was advised by the minister of Spain that he was unable to conclude such an arrangement by exchange of notes, for the reason that consular officers of Spain have no jurisdiction in such cases.
The department will be pleased to have you inquire if the lack of consular jurisdiction in China exists also in Morocco, and whether it is a casus omissus of Spanish legislation in regard to consular functions, or is merely an omission to make appropriate regulations in the matter.
I inclose two copies of all the agreements made by the United States, both for Morocco and China.
I am, etc.,