File No. 11343.

The Secretary of State to the Cuban Minister.

No. 237.]

Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 24th instant, in which you state that one Rafael Barbato, who has been arrested and held at Tampa on a charge of larceny committed in Cuba, has waived extradition proceedings, and you ask whether, under the circumstances, extradition can be granted without waiting for the evidence required by treaty.

I have the honor to say, in reply, that the department can not give a definite assurance as to what its action will be in any case of extradition in advance of the report from the examining magistrate committing the fugitive for surrender. If upon the receipt of the magistrate’s commitment it appears that the fugitive voluntarily waives his right to an examination and consents to return for trial to the country where the offense was committed, the department will under ordinary circumstances let the case take its customary course.

Accept, etc.,

Elihu Root.