File No. 16948/31–33.
In reply I inclose copy of my informal note of the 17th instant to
the foreign office, transmitting the memorandum in question, and
inviting the concurrence of the Mexican Government with the views
expressed therein.
The reply of the foreign office will be transmitted to the department
so soon as received.
[Inclosure.]
Ambassador Thompson to the Minister
for Foreign Affairs.
American Embassy,
Mexico, April 17,
1909.
F. O. No. 670. Informal.]
My Dear Mr. Minister: At various times
the question of holding prisoners under request for provisional
arrest and detention has been the subject of no little concern,
both to my Government and yours.
The most recent case in point is that of Juan de Dios Rodriguez,
whose arrest was asked by my Government, because of a murder
committed in Texas. The correspondence in this case commences
with my note1 of
December 14 last (F. O. No. 55).
In view of the fact that the two Governments have a different
opinion as to whether or not under the treaty a prisoner should
be detained after the expiration of the period of 40 days
following the arrest, providing the extradition papers do not
arrive within this time, I wired my Government at the time the
Rodriguez case was up, asking that they send me their reasoning
in the matter, in order that I might present it to your
Government, with the hope that an understanding which would be
the same in Washington and Mexico could be reached.
The answer to my request I herewith inclose, in the form of a
lengthy review of my Government’s opinion on the subject, and
the authorities on which they base these opinions,
In view of the fact, as is said in the despatch from Washington
transmitting this memorandum, that the distances in both the
United States and Mexico are so great, and the difficulties
entailed in getting extradition papers together so numerous,
that at times it is next to impossible to get them into the
hands of the Government holding the fugitive before the
expiration of the 40-day period, it would be very advantageous
to both my Government and, I should think, the Mexican
Government, if the views of the American Government could be
considered as reasonable and agreed to by the Mexican
Government.
My Government says in the dispatch above referred to that the
matter is regarded with grave concern, and the Department of
State is apprehensive of an occasional serious result if your
Government should hold to its opinion that a man should be
released without rearrest at the expiration of the 40-day
provisional detention period.
The American Government holds that a man may be rearrested and
held until the case may be acted upon by the proper judicial
authorities, and my attention has been called to the fact that
rearrests have been made in cases where the Mexican Government
has failed to get the papers into the hands of the Washington
Government within the limit of the 40-day period.
Believe me, etc.,
