439.41 St 3/14
The Secretary of State to the British Chargé (Chilton)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of the Ambassador’s note No. 467 of June 17, 1922,70 in relation to the injuries alleged to have been sustained by two British subjects, Messrs. Thomas J. Steele and Dougald [Dugal] McPhail, at the hands of Dominican bandits in September 1921, and to inform you that the American Legation at Santo Domingo further reports that the Dominican Foreign Office, in response to the Legation’s note requesting it to designate the tribunals of Santo Domingo to which Messrs. Steele and McPhail may find redress, states that they should submit their claims to the Procurador Fiscal of the Judicial District of San Pedro de Macoris.
Replying to the Ambassador’s inquiry as to whether in forwarding to the Embassy a copy of a note and translation thereof, dated February 7, 1922, from the Dominican Foreign Office to the American Legation, the United States Government may be held to approve of and to subscribe to the principles laid down in the Dominican note, and to consider that such principles are susceptible of universal application, it would seem pertinent to observe that this Government considers that the claims of Messrs. Steele and McPhail are against the Government of the Dominican Republic, and, as stated, cognizable by the courts of that country, and that the Department acted merely as a medium of transmission and at the express request of the British Embassy in acquainting the Embassy with the views of the Dominican Foreign Office as expressed in its note to the American Legation.
Accept [etc.]
- Not printed; it referred to the Ambassador’s note of May 3, supra, and requested a reply.↩