No. 298.
Mr. Hunter
to Mr. Hoppin.
Washington, September 15, 1879.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of Mr. Welsh’s No. 327, of the 29th of July last, inclosing a copy of a note dated the 23d of the same month, from the Marquis of Salisbury, in which it is proposed that this government shall enter into an arrangement with that of Great Britain by which an account shall be rendered and payment made of expenses incurred in connection with cases of extradition once annually, at the most convenient period of the financial year.
In reply, I have to say that the treaty of 1842, Article X, provides that “the expense of such apprehension and delivery shall be borne and defrayed by the party who makes the requisition and receives the fugitive.”
The statutory provisions in regard to extradition are silent on the question of expenses.
No legal objections are perceived to entering into such an arrangement as that proposed by the Marquis of Salisbury.
An inconvenience, however, might arise from such an arrangement as the result of the following circumstances:
There are very few requisitions for offenses against the Federal laws. Each State and Territory is required to bear the expenses of requisition and extradition in each case presented by it for the extradition of fugitive criminals from the justice of such State or Territory.
The expenses which this government would be called upon by Great Britain to pay are such as are usually incurred about Scotland Yard, such as services of detectives, the expenses of keeping prisoners, &c.
These expenses the agent appointed by the President, on the nomination of the executive of the State, is expected to pay at the time of taking charge of the fugitive. If, in any case, they should be left unpaid as in some few cases they have been, this Department might be called upon to audit and pay a considerable sum at the end of the year without any fund under its control from which it could properly pay, and might, moreover, find it difficult to get reimbursement from the State. As the matter is now, each case can be scrutinized on its own merits and at the moment.
In view of these circumstances this Department does not consider it expedient to enter into the arrangement proposed in the Marquis of Salisbury’s note above mentioned. I will thank you to communicate this conclusion to Her Majesty’s Government.
I am, &c.,
Acting Secretary.