File No. 14963/39–47.
Minister Morgan to the Secretary of State.
Habana, March 4, 1909.
Sir: In continuation of the legation’s dispatch No. 764, of September 25 last,1 prepared by Mr. G. Cornell Tarler, second secretary of legation, while acting in the capacity of chargé d’affaires ad interim, and which related to the assault upon him by a Cuban named Yarini on the evening of September 22, I have the honor to report that consequent upon my representations to the Cuban foreign office that Mr. Tarler, when attacked, was performing the functions of a foreign minister, and that the assault therefore became punishable by “correctional imprisonment,” and should accordingly be investigated by a judge of instruction, and not by a correctional court. The trial of Yarini occurred on the 1st instant in the audiencia of Habana.
[Page 238]I have the honor to inclose, in duplicate, cutting from the Habana Telegraph1 of to-day’s date, stating that it is expected that the judge of the audiencia considers his court incompetent to try Yarini. Should this case be relegated to the correctional court, it would become a question whether or not Mr. Tarler should waive his diplomatic privileges and be personally represented by counsel, and the legation will have to request instructions from the department on this point.
I have, etc.,