File No. 5727/60.
The Secretary of
State to the British
Ambassador.
Department of State,
Washington, June 12,
1907.
No. 80.]
Excellency: Supplementing my note of the
8th instant, I have the honor to inclose a copy of a letter received
on yesterday from the Secretary of the Treasury touching on the
question of the acceptance of certificates issued by foreign
chambers of commerce.
I have, etc.,
[Inclosure.]
The Secretary of the
Treasury to the Secretary of
State.
Treasury Department,
Washington, June 8, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge
the receipt of your letter of the 8th instant, further in regard
to the accrediting of special and confidential agents of this
department to the German Government, with instructions to
cooperate with German chambers of commerce, and the acceptance
by appraising officers as competent evidence of certificates
issued by such chambers of commerce, in which you state that you
propose to inform other countries that these concessions will be
applicable to them in so far as the conditions of the respective
countries will permit.
[Page 496]
In so far as the question relates to the accrediting of special
agents, I see no objection to making it generally applicable,
but with respect to the acceptance of certificates issued by
chambers of commerce it must be remembered that the Board of
General Appraisers is a judicial, or at least a quasi-judicial
body, being vested with the authority, under the ordinary rules
of evidence, to determine the competency or incompetency of
testimony adduced before them. I think it proper that
certificates of value issued by chambers of commerce having
semigovernmental status should be regarded by the board as
competent evidence, but I do not think it right for the
department to establish an arbitrary regulation compelling the
board to accept as competent testimony the certificates of value
of chambers of commerce which do not bear, as do the German
chambers of commerce, an official relation to the
Government.
A different departmental attitude on this question would
undoubtedly result in embarrassment should the board reject as
incompetent the certificates of unofficial chambers of
commerce.
Respectfully,
