Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 8, 1908

File No. 15984/9–11.

Ambassador O’Brien to the Secretary of State.

American Embassy,
Tokyo, November 4, 1908.

No. 476.]

Sir: Referring to my dispatch to the department, No. 465, of the 14th ultimo,¹ concerning the provisional arrest of Yoshitaro Abe, and to the exchange of telegrams of October 15 and 19, respectively, between this embassy and the department on the same subject, I have the honor to report that the assurance conveyed in the last-named telegram—that the United States would reciprocate under similar circumstances in future—was at once communicated in a note to the minister for foreign affairs. A copy of this note is herewith inclosed.

On October 27 I received a telegram from the attorney general of the Territory of Hawaii asking whether Abe was under arrest, and stating that extradition papers were in the attorney general’s hands. Inquiry was at once made at the foreign office, which replied that before the order for arrest was made out it had been ascertained that Abe had fled to Dalny, but that orders for his apprehension had been sent to the authorities at that place. I telegraphed the attorney general in this sense.

On the following day I received a note from the foreign office, a copy of which is transmitted herewith, stating that the fugitive had been arrested on October 27 at Dalny and was there under detention. I immediately telegraphed this news to the attorney general, from whom I am to-day in receipt of a telegram stating that a deputy sheriff left Hawaii on the steamship Siberia, due to arrive in Yokohama on November 13.

This information has been communicated to the minister for foreign affairs, to whom I have expressed my appreciation of the prompt action in this matter of the Imperial Government.

I have, etc.,

T. J. O’Brien.

[Inclosure 1.]

Ambassador O’Brien to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.

American Embassy,
Tokyo, October 20, 1908.

Monsieur le Ministre: Referring to your excellency’s note No. 24 of the 15th instant regarding the provisional arrest and detention of one Yoshitaro Abe, charged with forgery in Hawaii, I have the honor to inform your excellency that I am to-day in receipt of telegraphic instructions from my Government asking me to inform you that the Government of the United States will surrender American citizens under similar circumstances in accordance with the provisions of the treaty.

I avail, etc.,

T. J. O’Brien.

[Inclosure 2.]

The Minister for Foreign Affairs to Ambassador O’Brien.

Department of Foreign Affairs,
Tokyo, October 28, 1908.

Monsieur l’Ambassadeur: Referring to your excellency’s request for the provisional arrest and detention of Yoshitaro Abe, a fugitive, charged with forgery in Hawaii, where a warrant for his arrest has already been issued, I have the honor to inform your excellency that upon receipt of the assurance contained in your note of the 20th instant that the Government of the United States will surrender American citizens in similar cases according to the provisions of the treaty, I at once communicated with the competent authorities for the provisional arrest and detention of said fugitive. As I was informed that he had, on the 15th instant, left Tokyo for Dairen, I then requested the governor general of Kwangtung to take the desired proceedings, and I am now in receipt of a telegraphic information in reply from the governor general that the aforesaid Abe was provisionally arrested on the 27th instant at Dairen, and is there under detention.

I avail, etc.,

Count Komura.

1. Not printed.