711.6521/224: Telegram

The Ambassador in Italy (Phillips) to the Secretary of State

5. Before submitting to the Foreign Office the draft consular convention transmitted with the Department’s instruction of December 7th, I consulted the Consul General in Naples57 and desire to submit his observations.

(1)
It would seem that the second paragraph of article III literally interpreted would grant to United States Government officials in Italy, other than Consuls, no tax exemptions except from the payment of income tax on their salaries alone. By its operation the career medical officers of the Public Health Service and officials of the Department of Labor stationed at Consulates would be required to pay the apartment tax, lease tax, circulation tax and others, while American clerks in the Consulate would be exempted. Such discrimination against career officers of other departments seems to Du Bois undesirable and might be eliminated from the treaty by the omission of the words “so far as they relate to official compensation”.
(2)
Article X may also offer certain difficulties in handling American shipping interests in Italy. The last sentence of its first paragraph gives consular officers jurisdiction over wage disputes and controversies over terms of shipping articles on American ships in Italian ports but admits that the jurisdiction of the captain of the port “shall not be excluded” if local law confers authority on him to concern himself with wage disputes on foreign ships in his port, which it does in this case unless other treaty provision is made. By paragraph 2 of this article the Consul may not exercise jurisdiction in the case of an [Page 500] assault on board which, by Italian law, constitutes a crime. Would it not be preferable to embody existing practice and leave to the Consul’s jurisdiction all troubles on ships which do not disturb the peace of the port. Those which do would come under local police regulations but no arrests could be made on board unless the Consul’s consent has been asked which has always been given.
Phillips
  1. Coert du Bois.