811.114/1165
The Secretary of State to the Secretary of the Treasury (Mellon)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 21, 1922, (your file Pro-Counsel. JJB),27 relative to the request of the Commissioner of Yukon Territory, Canada, for permission from this Government to transport spirituous liquors from Skagway, Alaska, a short distance over American territory into Yukon Territory, since all supplies of every kind for the people of Yukon Territory, a population of some 5,000, are received through the port of Skagway. You state that the purchase and sale of liquors in Yukon Territory are carried on by the Government, and that although to grant this request would apparently be technically a violation of our Constitution and laws, the case is considered so analogous to the allowance of transportation over our territory of diplomatic liquors that you are disposed to grant the request, particularly since the Yukon Government proposes to guarantee that there will be no diversion of such liquors or abuse of the privilege. You state that if the privilege is to be allowed it must be based on its analogy to the special privilege granted the representative of foreign governments with respect to liquors, and that you do not feel at liberty to act without my consent. You add that should this Department offer no objections to the allowance of the request, although its general supervision would be with this Department, your Department would nevertheless assume responsibility for its administration and prevention of abuses under it.
I have the honor to state that I do not consider that the transportation of liquor destined to the Government of Yukon corresponds to the shipment of liquor for use by diplomatic representatives accredited to this Government. Although I am not disposed to offer any objection to the granting of the request of the Commissioner of [Page 591] Yukon Territory, should your Department see fit to grant it, I do not consider that the matter is one to be decided by the Department of State, or that I am in a position to grant the request of the Commissioner.
I have [etc.]
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