File No. 560/48.
[Inclosure.]
Ambassador O’Brien to Vice Consul Williamson.
American Embassy,
Tokyo, November 22,
1909.
No. 1209.]
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the
receipt of your dispatch No. 1070 of November 16, 1909,1 in which you request to be
informed as to whether the United States enjoys extraterritorial
jurisdiction over its citizens in the leased district of Kwangtung,
and, further, you desire to know the circumstances under which it
was lost, if it is no longer exercised.
During the years 1897 and 1898 China leased portions of her territory
to Russia, England, and Germany.
You will find in the United States Foreign Relations, 1900, pages 382 to 390, that the Department of
State, after investigation and correspondence with the legation at
Peking, took the attitude in common with all the foreign powers
represented at Peking, with the exception of Japan, that the leased
territories had passed absolutely out of the control of China during
the tenure of the lease.
American consuls in China in whose districts the leased areas had
formerly been were therefore informed by the legation, by direction
of the Secretary of State, that they should not exercise
extraterritorial consular jurisdiction or perform any ordinary
nonjudicial consular acts within the leased territory until
exequaturs recognizing their official character had been obtained
for them from the respective foreign Governments. It was not
expected that these exequaturs would recognize the right to
extraterritorial jurisdiction.
The Japanese Government, as stated above, refused to admit this
principle in the territory leased by Russia. However, when Japan, in
1905, took over from Russia the leased territory it was especially
provided by article 10 of the treaty of Portsmouth that Russian
subjects in the territory should come under exclusive Japanese
jurisdiction.
[Page 396]
As the exequatur you now hold has been issued to you by the Japanese
Government in accordance with the provisions of our treaty with
Japan it would seem evident that it gives you no authority to
extraterritorial jurisdiction over American citizens, the leased
territory being to all intents and practical purposes a part of
Japan proper. You will realize that the exequatur issued by the
Japanese Government to our consul general in Korea is of a different
nature, being issued by the Japanese Government on behalf of the
Korean Government, of whose foreign affairs Japan has taken
charge.
I am informed by the British and German embassies that they are also
of the opinion that foreigners in the Kwantung Peninsula are
exclusively under Japanese jurisdiction. I am further informed that
this question having lately been brought to the attention of Sir
Edward Grey in connection with a proposed trade-mark treaty, the
British ambassador was informed that England did not exercise
extraterritorial jurisdiction in the leased territory, and that your
colleague at Dalny was so advised.
I am, etc.,
