711.673/114: Telegram
The Ambassador in Great Britain ( Davis ) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received 9:05 p.m.]
72. In note dated the 19th instant, Foreign Office after referring to its note transmitted in my mail despatch 3985, December 30, 1920,78 concerning jurisdiction over foreigners of the courts in Palestine states as follows:
“His Majesty’s High Commissioner for Palestine has now reported that the United States Consul has requested that a certain United States citizen convicted for forgery by the Jaffa court and sentenced to imprisonment should be handed over to him for trial and the conviction quashed. The United States citizen in question was convicted by court composed of a British president and two Palestine judges because at the time there was no indication that the individual concerned was a foreign citizen. Sir H. Samuel reports that the rehearing on appeal is postponed pending negotiations for same [instructions from me?] and that the accused is on bail. If and when the rehearing takes place the court will be composed with a majority of British judges. In these circumstances and having regard to the arguments advanced in my note under reference I venture to express the hope that the United States Government will see no objection to the case of this United States citizen being reheard by a court composed as Sir H. Samuel suggests.”