Office of the Historian

811.114 I’m Alone/2212

The Minister in Canada (MacNider) to the Secretary of State

Ottawa, May 22, 1931.
[Received May 25.]
No. 361

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s telegraphic instruction No. 48 of May 18, 6 p.m., informing the Legation that Consul General Frost at Montreal and Miss Doris Corrigan, visa clerk in the Consulate General, were subpoenaed to appear in court on May 19 to produce official documents in their custody and to testify in habeas corpus proceedings in the case of Marvin J. Clark, and directing the Legation to bring the matter to the attention of the Canadian Department of External Affairs, pointing out that under the principles of international law, official archives of consular offices are not subject to subpoena requiring their production in judicial proceedings and that consular officers and their employees cannot properly be required to testify concerning their official acts.

Upon the receipt of the above-mentioned telegraphic instruction, I immediately addressed a note to the Secretary of State for External Affairs in the above sense and copy of the latter’s reply is enclosed herewith. The Department will observe that the Department of External Affairs did not actually admit the justice of my representations in so many words, but merely pointed out that according to press reports neither the Consul General nor Miss Corrigan was required to produce documents from the official archives of the Consulate General or to testify concerning their official acts.

Respectfully yours,

Hanford MacNider
[Enclosure]

The Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs (Bennett) to the American Minister (MacNider)

Ottawa, May 20, 1931.
No. 72

Sir: I have the honour to refer to your note, No. 223, dated the 19th May, 1931, relating to the service upon Mr. Wesley Frost, Consul General of the United States at Montreal, and Miss Doris Corrigan, a citizen of the United States and visa clerk in the Consulate General, of a process by which they were ordered to appear in Court at Montreal, on the 19th May, and to produce official documents in their custody and to testify in habeas corpus proceedings in the case of Marvin J. Clark.

I observe that the Consul General at Montreal has been instructed not to testify or to produce official documents in Court and not to permit Miss Corrigan to do so, upon the grounds that the official archives [Page 900] of consular officers are not subject to subpoena requiring their production in judicial proceedings, and that Consular officers and their employees cannot properly be required to testify concerning their official acts.

I observe from the press reports of the proceedings that took place in Montreal on the 19th instant, that this position was taken by counsel for the Consul General, and that neither the Consul General nor Miss Corrigan was required to produce documents from the Official Archives, or to testify concerning their official acts.

Accept [etc.]

O. D. Skelton

For Secretary of State for External Affairs