File No. 211.41/15.

The Secretary of State to the British Ambassador.

No. 139.]

Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note No. 231, of the 1st instant, in which, under instructions from your Government, you inquire whether the Government of the United States would be willing to enter into an arrangement with the Government of His Britannic Majesty by virtue of which fugitive offenders from the Philippine Islands or Guam to the State of North Borneo or from the State of North Borneo to the Philippine Islands or Guam shall be reciprocally surrendered for offenses specified in the existing treaties of extradition between the United States and His Britannic Majesty, so far as such offenses are punishable both by the laws of the Philippine Islands or Guam and by the laws of the State of North Borneo; and you ask that, in case the Government of the United States agrees to this arrangement, you receive from me an assurance that your note will be considered by the Government of the United States as a sufficient confirmation thereof on the part of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.

In reply I am happy to state that the Government of the United States agrees to the arrangement between the Government of the United States and the Government of His Britannic Majesty by which it is understood that fugitive offenders from the Philippine Islands or Guam to British North Borneo and from British North Borneo to the Philippine Islands or Guam shall be reciprocally delivered up for offenses specified in the extradition treaties between the United States and His Britannic Majesty’s Government so far as such offenses are punishable both by the laws of the Philippine Islands or Guam and by the laws of British North Borneo; and accepts your excellency’s note as a sufficient confirmation of the arrangement on the part of His Britannic Majesty’s Government.

Accordingly, the Government of the United States understands the arrangement to be completed by this present note and to be in full force and effect from and after September 23, 1913.

I have [etc.]

W. J. Bryan.