702.0641D/14
The Chargé in the Irish Free State (Denby) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 17.]
Sir: I have the honor to refer to my despatch No. 110, of September 26, 1934, apprizing the Department of the fact that, inasmuch as the state of New York had granted foreign consular officers within its borders free registration of their motor vehicles, the Irish Free State Government, by way of reciprocity, had granted to American consular officers stationed in the city and county of Dublin exemption from the payment of the Irish Free State road tax on motor cars.
This is agreeable to American consular officers in Dublin but does not benefit those in Cork. American consular officers in the city and county of Cork (the only other district in the Free State in which American consular officers are stationed) will have to continue to pay the road tax on their motor vehicles. They could, however, secure exemption from this tax if a corresponding exemption were granted Irish Free State consular officers stationed, in the United States, in some other State than in New York. In other words, I am (orally) informed by the competent official of the Free State Department of External Affairs that American consular officers in Cork will be granted exemptions corresponding to those granted Free State consular officers in any one of the three cities of Boston, Chicago, or San Francisco.
Acting on behalf of the American consular officers now stationed in Cork and those who may in the future be stationed there, and with the concurrence of the American Consul General in Dublin, I therefore venture hereby to request the Department to inform me whether any one of the three States of Massachusetts, Illinois, or California grant to foreign consular officers stationed within their borders an exemption of any kind from motor vehicle registration taxes or other motor vehicle taxes in order that, on the basis of reciprocity, the Legation may be in a position to press for the exemption of American consular officers stationed in Cork from the Free State road tax on their motor cars. The tax is a heavy one being calculated, generally speaking, at a pound sterling per horsepower per annum.
Respectfully yours,