File No. 8682/4.
The Acting Secretary of State to the Argentine Minister.
Washington , April 21, 1908 .
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 28th ultimo replying the department’s note of October 15, 1907, by which you were advised that Oreste Eosen, who is charged with fraudulent bankruptcy in the Argentine Republic, could not be lawfully held for extradition in case he should be apprehended in the United States, as his offense is not an extraditable one under the treaty of extradition in force between the United States and the Argentine Republic.
Your statement is noted, that your Government instructs you to express its surprise at the department’s statement that private detectives should be employed to discover the whereabouts of lawbreakers in cases of this kind, and that the Argentine authorities, having always acted favorably on similar requests of the American legation at Buenos Aires, had expected reciprocal action, in accordance with international usage.
In reply I have the honor to say that on February 29 this department forwarded to the American legation at Buenos Aires, for transmission to your Government, a discussion and explanation of the matters referred to in your note. The substance of that dispatch is inclosed herewith. It would appear that this dispatch crossed the dispatch from your own Government in transit.
The department greatly regrets that it is not able under the system of jurisprudence in the United States to afford the Argentine Republic the reciprocal assistance in matters of apprehension of fugitives from justice which that Government so courteously extends to the United States; but it is believed that the method outlined in the department’s dispatch mentioned above, as to the manner in which foreign governments, attempting to locate criminals fugitive in this country, can secure the assistance in such work of local American officials, will prove effective and satisfactory.
Accept, etc.,