File No. 7490/–1.
Ambassador Griscom to the Secretary of State.
Rome, June 18, 1907.
Sir: In an interview which I had with His Excellency Mr. Tittoni, the Italian minister for foreign affairs, on the 15th instant, he informed me that his Government was considerably disturbed by the fact that the Government of Brazil has just denounced an accord arranged between Italy and Brazil by an exchange of notes dated the 28th and 30th of March, 1889, which determined the powers of Italian consuls in Brazil in matters concerning the estates of Italians decedent in Brazil. Mr. Tittoni furnished me with a promemoria, [Page 118] a copy and translation of which is appended hereto,a from which it will be seen that the exchange of notes already mentioned was in the nature of an agreement for the putting into operation of an old regulation approved by decree of the Brazilian Government dated November 8, 1851. It appears that similar accords, with like provisions, were entered into between the Government of Brazil and the Governments, respectively, of Belgium, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.
The agreements entered into with Italy and the other States have now been denounced by a note of the Brazilian Government of April 15 last giving notice that the agreements will terminate after three months; that is to say, on the 15th of July, 1907.
Mr. Tittoni stated that the termination of these agreements leaves the estates of foreigners decedent in Brazil entirely at the mercy of the local authorities and deprives the foreign consuls of all power of preserving and protecting the estates of their conationals who die in Brazil. He stated that, as there are about 1,200,000 Italian subjects there resident, the question now raised is giving serious concern to the Italian Government. Although Italy is the foreign country most interested, owing to the great number of Italian subjects in Brazil, yet the minister thinks the matter is one which must also be of interest to our Government, and he therefore asks me to ascertain informally how you are disposed to view the matter. I assured his excellency that I would at once bring the subject to your knowledge and ask for some informal expression of your opinion.
I have, etc.,
- Not printed.↩