890d.01/198
The American Ambassador (Herrick) to the French President of the Council (Poincaré)21
Monsieur le Président du Conseil: In previous communications dated October 24th22 and December 18th, 1923,23 I have had the honor to bring to Your Excellency’s attention the desire of my Government that the existing provisions of the Extradition Treaty of 1909 and the Consular Convention of 1853 between the United States and France should be reciprocally extended to the United States and to Syria and the Lebanon by an appropriate provision to this effect in the proposed convention. With regard to the Mandate, it is my understanding that, for reasons which have already been explained, it is not the desire of your Government to include such a proposal, but that the French Government is prepared to assure to the United States and to American nationals in the mandated territory the rights and privileges provided under the Treaty and Convention respectively.
I am instructed by my Government to express its appreciation of the assurances of the French Government in this respect and to state that, on the basis of this understanding and of the assurances which you have embodied in your communication of November 2, 1923,24 and of April 4, 1924, it is prepared to proceed to the signature of the convention.
In order, however, that there may be no misunderstanding with regard to the position of nationals of Syria and the Lebanon in the United States, my Government desires me to state that the provisions of the Consular Convention of 1853 would not be applicable with respect to such nationals in the absence of a treaty provision specifically providing for such application, and that, furthermore, the Government of the United States could not assure the application to such nationals in the United States of the provisions of the Extradition Treaty of 1909 in the absence of a treaty provision so providing. At the same time I take pleasure in informing you that, upon the conclusion and ratification of the mandate convention, my Government will raise no objection to the assumption by the diplomatic and consular officers of France of the protection of the interests of the nationals of Syria and the Lebanon in the United States.
I have [etc.]
- Transmitted by the Ambassador in France as an enclosure to his despatch no. 4084, Apr. 10; received Apr. 22.↩
- See Department’s telegram no. 391, Oct. 23, 1923, to the Ambassador in France, Foreign Relations, 1923, vol. ii, p. 2.↩
- See Department’s telegram no. 466, Dec. 17, 1923, to the Ambassador in France, ibid., p. 6.↩
- Ibid., p. 4.↩