211.67/25
The Chief of the Division of Near Eastern Affairs (Murray) to the Chief of the Treaty Division (Barnes)
Dear Mr. Barnes: In accordance with the request contained in your memorandum of November 25, 1930,46 I am quoting, below, for your [Page 936] confidential information, an excerpt from Mr. Grew’s diary of November 10, 1930, telling of his discussions at the Foreign Office concerning the question of an extradition treaty with Turkey:
“At four I went with Shaw47 to the Foreign Office to discuss with Numan Bey48 the question of an extradition treaty. Essat Bey49 and an expert from the legal department were present. Began by saying that I had been embarrassed by an announcement in the press that we were about to commence negotiations for such a treaty, because if this announcement should be cabled to the United States it would surprise the Department of State which had given me no mandate or instructions to negotiate such a treaty. As I had clearly pointed out to the Minister, my Government had merely inquired if the Turkish Government would care to obtain the ratification of our old Extradition Treaty of Lausanne. The Minister had said that certain modifications in the text would now be necessary as Turkish policy with regard to extradition treaties had in the meantime altered, and I had replied that if the Ministry would inform me of the proposed modifications I would communicate them to Washington in order to ascertain whether my Government desired to institute negotiations on that basis. That was exactly the situation and it could therefore not be said that we were now beginning negotiations. Numan Bey replied that he fully understood my position and was in accord.
“With respect to articles one and two of our Extradition Treaty of 1923 Numan Bey pointed out that in their recent Extradition Treaties there was no article enumerating the various crimes and misdemeanors for which extradition might take place. The criterion used was the degree of punishment and not the offence. To this principle exceptions are made in favor of offences pertaining to the press, of a military character and of a fiscal character. The Turks, likewise having in mind the commitments of their Arbitration Treaties, insist upon determining the nationality of the person whose extradition is desired and also what exactly constitutes a political offence. In general, with respect to articles 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of our Extradition Treaty of 1923 they are in agreement. With respect to article 10 they feel that all the expenses in connection with an arrest, detention and transportation up to the frontier should be borne by the party of whom the extradition is requested. All of the extradition treaties recently negotiated by Turkey, notably with Germany, Italy, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria are said to contain these provisions. Numan Bey said that although these various treaties had not yet been ratified and were therefore not in effect, he would send me the texts of all of them and that my Government could then take its choice of any of the texts as a basis for negotiation. Shaw took notes of the changes proposed which we shall forward to the Department by mail together with the texts of the various other treaties mentioned.”