File No. 765.003.
The Secretary of State to the American Ambassador.
Washington , March 1, 1913 .
Sir: Referring to the instruction (No. 111) of December 5th last,1 on the subject of the extension of Italian sovereignty to Libya, in which you were informed that the Department would in the near future instruct you further as to the attitude to be adopted on the question of the relinquishment of extraterritorial rights in Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, I enclose herewith for your information a translation of the note under date of October 30th last by which the Italian Chargé d’Affaires informed me that in view of the cessation of the special regime formerly enjoyed by foreigners in those regions by virtue of the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire, instructions have been given to the Italian authorities in Libya to the effect that from November 1st, 1912, the provisions of the general law would be applicable to foreigners. I also enclose a copy of the note under date of February 28th in which the Department, taking note of this communication, informs the Italian Embassy that the appropriate American diplomatic and consular representatives have been instructed to conform to the legal situation thus established in Libya. The substance of this reply was communicated to you by telegraph February 27th, with the direction that your Embassy, as also the Consulate General at Genoa and the Consulate at Tripoli, to both of which the instruction was directed to be repeated, should be guided by the purport of that note.
I am [etc.]