File No. 10901/80.
Memorandum from the Russian Embassy.
Washington, January 18, 1909.
Referring to a conversation recently held with the honorable the Secretary of State on the subject of the Jan Pouren extradition case, the Russian ambassador begs to call to the attention of the Department of State the latest developments that have taken place in this case.
The final hearing of the case before the United States commissioner in New York had been appointed for Saturday last, January 16, when Messrs. Coudert Bros., counsel for the Russian consulate general, requested a further postponement of the hearing for the purpose of enabling them to produce the additional evidence required in rebuttal of the new evidence introduced by the defense, such additional evidence not having yet reached them in spite of every effort put forward on their behalf as well as on behalf of the consulate general and this embassy.
[Page 522]The commissioner did not see his way to granting their request for the said purpose. He gave his consent, however, to a new postponement until Monday, January 25, for the purpose of enabling Messrs. Coudert Bros, to produce further authority in support of a point they had made during the hearing, namely, that United States commissioners sitting in extradition cases were not competent to decide the question whether a state of “political” disturbance had existed at a given time in a foreign country, such having been the contention of the defense in regard to the Province of Livonia in the summer of 1906.
In the meantime this embassy had repeatedly requested the imperial ministry of foreign affairs to use every effort to accelerate the dispatch of the documents containing the additional evidence required.
In reply to these requests the Russian ambassador received in the evening of January 16 a cable dispatch from the minister of foreign affairs informing him that on account of the extremely complicated nature of the additional evidence required the imperial department of justice is unable to fix a date when the documents could be forwarded, and instructing him to take every step possible in order to obtain a further postponement of the final hearing of this case.
In pursuance of such instructions the Russian ambassador has the honor to appeal to the good offices of the Department of State in this matter in support of the renewed request for such postponement, which Messrs. Coudert Bros, have been instructed to submit to the United States commissioners sitting on the case.
Considering that the defense has been granted a rehearing of the case for the purpose of introducing new evidence in the shape of various affidavits, in spite of the fact that the case had been sub judice for about seven or eight months before a decision in favor of extradition was reached, it would seem but just and fair that the demanding Government should be given as ample time as may be required for the purpose of collecting and preparing evidence in rebuttal of such new evidence introduced by the defense.