File No. 1558/10.
The Acting Secretary of State to the Persian Minister.
Washington, July 17, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 4th instant, in which you refer to your conversation with Mr. Richmond Pearson on the 9th ultimo, in which he expressed the opinion that the Labaree incident was closed, and request the department to confirm the impression Mr. Pearson’s statements made upon you, that the matter was finally closed and that no further action would be taken in connection with it.
In reply I have the honor to say that, while this Government recognizes the fact that the Persian Government is not in a position to inflict any additional punishment on the remaining accessories to the murder of Mr. Labaree during their exile in Turkey, their punishment would naturally be expected if they should return to Persian jurisdiction. In abandoning further insistence on the exaction of pecuniary penalty from their relatives the department takes the actual conditions into account, and is not to be understood as absolving the accessories from criminal liability for their heinous acts.
Accept, etc.,