24203/1.
The Acting Secretary of State to thde British Ambassador.
Washington, July 15, 1910.
Excellency: The department has received your note of the 27th ultimo, in which you refer to the department’s note of May 19 last, relative to the examination of witnesses by consular officers in the United States, and state that you are in receipt of a further communication from the British Foreign Office instructing you to explain that, the taking of evidence under commission is not confined to His Majesty’s consular officers, but includes any person in whose favor such commission may be issued, and that you are instructed to inform this Government that His Majesty’s Government would be glad to learn whether the reply of the United States Government may be deemed to imply assent in, those cases also; and that you are further instructed to add that His Majesty’s Government would offer no objection to the examination of witnesses in this country by any person duly authorized by the United States courts.
In reply I have the honor to say that this Government, subject to the reservation indicated in the department’s note of May 19th last, is agreeable to the taking of testimony in the United States by persons other than British consular officers, duly authorized by British Courts.
I have, etc.,