File No. 7490/–1.
The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Griscom.
Washington, October 7, 1907.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your No. 91, of June 18 last, reporting your conversation with the Italian minister for foreign affairs in regard to the denunciation by the Government of Brazil of the agreement by exchange of notes with Italy determining the powers of Italian consuls in Brazil over the estates of their deceased fellow-countrymen.
There is no consular convention in force between the United States and Brazil, and this Government appears to have declined to make with Brazil an arrangement such as that referred to in your dispatch.
Brazil contends that the jurisdiction of our consuls over the estates of decedent Americans in Brazil is limited by the general principles of international law. This Government has insisted that it had certain treaty rights under the treaty of 1828 (which was abrogated by Brazil, so far as it related to commerce and navigation, by the notice given March 26, 1840), but Brazil has never admitted the correctness of its interpretation.
It would seem that the recent action of Brazil in denouncing its agreements with certain foreign powers can have but little effect upon American interests.
I am, etc.,