211.41/157

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador in Great Britain (Dawes)

No. 949

Sir: The Department has received your despatch No. 2259, of September 16, 1931,20 enclosing a copy of a note from the Foreign Office suggesting further amendments in the text of the proposed Extradition Treaty between the United States and Great Britain.

The Department has no objections to the changes suggested which are as follows:

The insertion of the words “crime or” or “crimes or”, as the case may be, before the words “offence” or “offences”, where such words occur in Article 3, paragraphs 6, 24, and 25;

The insertion of the words “or convicted person” after the word “accused” in Article 3, paragraph 6;

The insertion of the words “or offences” after the word “crimes” in Article 3, paragraph 21;

The amendment of the description of the British Government in Article 15 to read “His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland”;

The alteration of the concluding words of Article 16, so as to read, “Cameroons under British Mandate, Togoland under British Mandate, and the Tanganyika Territory”, and the omission of Palestine from Article 16.

The Department is also agreeable to the exchange of notes making the provisions of the treaty applicable to Palestine (excluding Transjordan) and to Transjordan.

It is noted that the British Government states with reference to Article 9 of the proposed treaty that English law requires a person convicted in contumaciam to be regarded as an accused person and that consequently the term “convicted” is not regarded as including such a person. The Government of the United States regards this matter in the same light.

It is further stated that the British Government calls attention to the fact that the inclusion in Article 3 of the treaty of offenses or attempted offenses in connection with the traffic in narcotics is dependent upon the passage of further legislation constituting such offences as extraditable.

In view of the foregoing and of the statements of the British Government in its current note, the Department presumes that the proposed treaty will be signed at an early date, full power for signing having been sent you February 9, 1931.

Very truly yours,

For the Secretary of State:
W. R. Castle, Jr.
  1. Not printed.