File No. 1558/1.
The Secretary of State to the Persian Minister.
Washington, November 7, 1906.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 17th ultimo, in which, concerning the punishment of the accessories in the murder of the American citizen Labaree, you point out, by direction of your Government, that the efforts made by the Persian authorities to capture these persons, who are related to chiefs of the border tribes, have resulted in disturbances along the whole of the Perso-Turkish boundary and in creating a controversy between Persia and Turkey, so that the Persian Government has had to meet not only internal disturbances, but also difficulties raised by Turkey; and you quote the text of a telegram from the governor of Oroomia to the effect that these disturbances, which have already been the cause of great loss of life and property, can not possibly come to an end unless the Government of the United States should “commute their punishment into a fine commensurate with their means.” Therefore, under the instructions of your Government, you request the Government of the United States “to accede to the peaceful solution of a fine.”
It thus appears that, in view of the impossibility of inflicting bodily punishment, by imprisonment or otherwise, as stipulated by the arrangement reached between the two governments in settlement of the reclamation arising out of the murder of the American citizen Labaree, the Persian Government proposes that, in lieu of such bodily punishment of the accessories, there be exacted from the guilty parties or their relatives a fine equal to the amount which was remitted from the indemnity paid to the widow of the murdered man.
This department understands that, under Oriental procedure, a fine levied upon the offenders or upon their property or upon their immediate relatives is a punitive process, implying ascertainment and adjudication of guilt.
It has been represented to the department that the burden of such a fine might not, in fact, fall upon the real culprits or upon their property or near kinsmen, but be levied upon the inhabitants of the territory by some form of taxation or assessment involving the vicarious suffering of the innocent peasantry for the deeds of public criminals. Such a proceeding would lack the essential element of punitive and exemplary justice and would, in fact, be tantamount to a device of the Persian State to relieve itself from the moral and conventional duty to punish the murderers. The Government of the United States would be loath to believe that any such procedure was contemplated or even possible. It would be a conspicuous and painful departure from the lofty principles of justice which from the earliest days of history have inspired the noble Persian Empire and set its reputation for uprightness so high in the eyes of all mankind. It would be a procedure to which the Government of the United States could not lend acquiescence.
In this matter of the murder of Labaree, the Government of the United States has acted in fulfillment of its duty to protect the interests of American citizens, as well as in the exercise of its international [Page 943] right to redress the wrong done to the United States in the person of one of its citizens. This has required the treatment of the question under two aspects—the remedial reparation due to the widow of the murdered man, which has been effected by the payment of a money indemnity for the benefit of the dependent relatives of Labaree, and the exemplary redress due to the Government of the United States, to effect which the due operation of Persian justice has been invoked against the guilty parties and their accessories.
The United States Government will not accept blood money from the state or from innocent Persians in substitution of its just claim that punishment be visited upon the guilty. It is imperative that they be punished.
As to the shape the punishment shall take, this Government is not disposed to dictate terms to the Persian Government, so long as we shall be satisfied that punishment in some way consonant with Persian justice and commensurate with the gravity of the crime is in fact inflicted. As a legal proposition punishment, whether by death, or by imprisonment, or by fine, is still a penalty for guilt. Whatever form it takes, if it does actually reach the guilty, its exemplary character and deterrent purpose are accomplished. But it is essential that the punishment should possess that exemplary character and should effect that deterrent purpose. This Government seeks no vindictive remedy on the one hand, and on the other hand it can not barter away its right to simple justice for a lucrative consideration which may be neither exemplary nor punitive.
If this Government be satisfied that the fine which, as appears from your note, is proposed to be inflicted upon the participants in the murder of Labaree shall be punitive, reaching the guilty parties, through their property or their kin, and not bear upon the innocent by way of a territorial tax or indiscriminate assessment, we shall be willing to take into account the difficulties which, as your note recites, stand in the way of the Persian Government’s pledge to visit bodily punishment upon those implicated in the murder of Labaree, and would be disposed to accept the imposition of an adequate fine as being a mode of punishment falling within the scope of our just demand.
To effect an agreement in this sense, however, it would be necessary that the two Governments should stipulate for some such suitable disposal of the fine as will attest its exemplary nature and deterrent purpose. It can not be viewed in the light of mere additional indemnity to the family of the murdered man. That form of reparation has already been completely accomplished. It can not inure to the pecuniary profit of the Government of the United States, for we may not and will not purchase lucrative gain at the cost of acquiescence in a failure of justice. Neither can it be deemed a fitting disposition to let it pass into the Persian treasury, for that would defeat the essential condition that the settlement of this matter between the Governments shall be exemplary as well as remedial, punitive, and deterrent.
In like cases, which have occurred elsewhere within recent years, notably in the Chinese Empire, a practical solution of the problem has been found and one which may be followed with singular appropriateness in the present case. It is that the money penalty exacted [Page 944] in punishment of the crime shall be devoted to the erection of a permanent memorial structure, such as a hospital or school, to stand as a monument in reprobation of the crime and as a beneficent augury of a better state of things to come. Such a memorial building erected in the neighborhood of the murder, with an appropriate inscription, would serve as a lasting lesson in favor of law and order, besides doing a work of good among the Persian people.
If your Government is disposed to consider the adoption of some such mode of settlement of this painful question, which so directly affects the dignity, honor, and good faith of two friendly countries, I shall be pleased to consider with you the most convenient way of bringing it about. But I ask you to impress your Government with the understanding that in the absence of some such disposition of the matter the Government of the United States would be unable to forego its righteous demands for the fulfillment of the clear duty and for the performance of the solemn pledges of the Persian Government in regard to the bringing to justice of all concerned in the murder of Labaree.
Accept, etc.,