File No. 21267/1.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Sands.
Washington, October 7, 1909.
Sir: With his dispatch No. 321, of August 9 last, Mr. Owen, the acting consul general at Guatemala City, inclosed a copy of Guatemalan executive decree No. 699, of July 19, 1909, providing that in the case of the burning of insured premises the beneficiaries of the insurance policy “shall be put in prison and shall not leave it until they can prove their innocence.”
You will bring this decree to the attention of the Guatemalan Government and say that the department deems the decree to be such a wide departure from correct juridical principles and so pregnant with possibilities of injustice that this Government could not view with indifference any attempt to apply its provisions to an American citizen.
I am, etc.,