File No. 702.6811/40.

The Secretary of State to the Chargé d’Affaires of Greece.

No. 198.]

Sir: The Department acknowledges the receipt of your note of March 7, 1914, relative to the suit brought against Mr. Aristotele Tsakonas, the Greek Consul at Philadelphia, by the Orthodox Hellenic Community of that city.

As suggested to you in the Department’s note of January 3, 1914, upon the subject it appears to have been primarily the duty of the Consul to present to the Court the means of defense which may be available to him under the Consular Convention between Greece and the United States, and it is not improbable that if the Consul had availed himself of this defense the Court thereupon would have terminated the proceedings. However, with a view to informing the Court of the Department’s views in the matter, the Department has addressed the Attorney General requesting him if possible to instruct the United States Attorney at Philadelphia to represent to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania the opinion of this Department that the Court’s action in entertaining the suit in question against the Consul may be found to be in violation of certain [Page 330] provisions of the Consular Convention between the United States and Greece and at variance with the principles of international law relative to the immunity of Consular archives, and to suggest to the Court the apparent advisability of dissolving the injunction which is granted and of discontinuing the litigation.

Accept [etc.]

For the Secretary of State:
John E. Osborne
.