File No. 311.651T15/25.
The Secretary of State to the Italian Ambassador.
Washington, March 1, 1913.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 31st of December last, asking for a reply to the note addressed to this Department on June 24th last, by your excellency, regarding the case of the lynching of the Italian subject, Angelo Albano, at Tampa, Florida, on September 20, 1910.
Referring to the Embassy’s previous notes regarding this case, I desire to express my regret that, through an inadvertence, the Department failed to communicate to the Royal Italian Embassy the reply1 received from the Governor of Florida to the Department’s letter to him of February 28, 1911, referred to in the Department’s note to the Embassy of that date. I may say now that this reply enclosed a report, made at the Governor’s request by the State Attorney of Florida, respecting the proceedings of the grand jury called to investigate the killing of the Italian subject Albano and the related matter of the killing of one Easterling, an American citizen resident of Tampa. This report recapitulated evidence with which the Embassy is already familiar in the main, and stated that, although a large number of witnesses were brought before the grand jury, including the driver of the hack in which Albano was being carried, no one could be found who could give evidence as to the identity of the persons who constituted the party which took him from the custody of the officers who had him in charge. In transmitting this report, the Governor of Florida pointed out that it evidenced that the State of Florida had exerted itself to secure the names of the persons who had participated in the wrong.
Referring further to the Embassy’s note of June 24th, I may say that I have noted the request of the Royal Italian Government that an indemnity be granted by this Government for the killing of Albano and have carefully and attentively studied the circumstances and contentions upon which this request is founded, and I regret that I am not at this time persuaded that under all the circumstances of the matter this Government would, in justice and under the applicable principles of international law, be clearly warranted in taking the course desired by the Royal Italian Government.
Accept [etc.]
- Last reference in the Solicitor’s memorandum.↩