The proceedings relating to sales of coffee from the valorization stock, instituted in the United States, have been happily ended and the two Governments have arrived at an understanding whereby the existing stock can be placed on the market without valorization. Through the medium of our Embassy at Washington our Foreign Office declared that the sales had been bona fide, whereupon the Attorney General of the United States, satisfied with that assurance, also declared that the American Government would not prosecute the matter further.

Brazil took real pleasure in welcoming the Delegates of the American Republics to the International Commission of Jurists created by the Convention of August 23, 1906, signed in Rio de Janeiro' during the Third International American Conference. The commission met from June 26 to July 19, in this city, and the Delegates of seventeen Nations were present at the opening session, namely those of the United States of America, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Salvador, Uruguay and Brazil; and, at a later session, those of Cuba, Bolivia and Venezuela. The Dominican delegate, Mr. Americo Lujo, did not take part, being still en voyage on the closing day. And we regret that the Delegates of Haiti, Honduras and

Nicaragua were not present.

The Commission held six ordinary sessions besides the preparatory, inaugural and closing sessions. At the inaugural session Doctor Lauro Müller, Minister of State for Foreign Relations, was made Honorary President, and Doctor Epitacio Pessoa, the Brazilian Delegate, was elected President.

Of the special committees appointed by the International Commission of Jurists, there are at work those of Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Santiago de Chile, and Buenos Aires; those of Washington and Lima have not yet convened.

The law No. 2416 of June 28, 1911, regulates extradition of nationals and foreigners and the prosecution and sentence thereof when perpetrators, outside of this country, of any of the crimes mentioned in the law, and Article 12 provides that upon the promulgation of the law copies be sent to all the Nations having relations with Brazil, all existing treaties of extradition being terminated. By virtue of this provision copies of the law were sent to the interested Governments and the existing treaties terminated by our Government. At the date of this law the following Acts relative to extradition were in effect: with the United States of America: the Treaty of May 14, 1897, and the annexed Protocols of May 28, 1898, and May 29, 1901. The Treaty and the two Protocols were denounced on January 23, 1913. by a note of our Embassy at Washington: as the provision for terminating them is for a period of six months, the three Acts will cease to be in effect on July 23 of this year.

* *

The Fifth Annual Conference of the Southern Commercial Congress, with its seat at Washington, will meet at Mobile, Alabama, in the fall of 1913, on the occasion of the opening of the Panama Canal. The Delegate of Brazil is our Consul General in New York, Mr. Manuel Jacintho Ferreira da Cunha.

EXTRADITION TREATY OF 1897 AND PROTOCOLS OF 1898 AND 1903 BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND BRAZIL1 TERMINATED BY BRAZIL, JULY 23, 1913.

File No. 211.32/2.

The American Ambassador to the Secretary of State.

No. 758.]

[Extract.]

AMERICAN EMBASSY, Petropolis, August 28, 1911. SIR: Referring to the Department's instruction No. 294, of May 13, 1911, I have the honor to report that, on June 28, 1911, the bill regulating extradition in this country, of which I forwarded a copy with

For the texts see For. Rel. 1903, pp. 27-33.

2 Kot printed.

my No. 444 of November 28, 1909,1 became a law without amendment. Two copies and translations of the statute are herewith enclosed. The passage of the act was wholly unexpected by the interested missions in view of the confident prediction made at the Foreign Office (see my No. 591, of September 12, 19101) and the attitude of the Foreign Minister in opposition to its passage last year.

Article 12 of the statute requires that all existing treaties of extradition shall be denounced, and I was informed on the 25th instant by Baron do Rio Branco, the Foreign Minister, of his Government's intention, accordingly, to terminate all such treaties. The DirectorGeneral of the Foreign Office, whom I saw later the same afternoon, stated, however, that the notices of intention to abrogate would not be issued until after a decision was made by the Supreme Federal Tribunal respecting the constitutionality of the statute.

I have [etc.]

*

*

*

IRVING B. DUDLEY.

[Inclosure-Translation.]

Brazilian Extradition Statute No. 2416, of June 28, 1911.

The President of the Republic of the United States of Brazil:

I make known that the National Congress has decreed and that I have sanctioned the following law:

Article I. The extradition of nationals and foreigners is permitted:

Section 1. The extradition of nationals will be conceded when, by law or treaty, the demanding country guarantees to Brazil reciprocity of treatment. Section 2. Lack of reciprocity will not prevent extradition in the case of naturalization following the act which leads to the request of the country where the offense has been committed.

Article II. Extradition cannot be granted in the following cases:

Section 1. When the crime is not punishable, according to Brazilian law, by imprisonment of one year or more, including the attempt, the participation and the complicity;

Section 2. When the person to be extradited is being tried, or has already been condemned or acquitted, by the Judicial Power of Brazil, for the same infraction which has led to the petition;

Section 3. When the crime or the penalty has already [been?] prescribed ac cording to the law of the demanding country.

Section 4. When the accused has to answer, in the country requesting extradition, before some judge or court of exception;

Section 5. When the infraction is:

a) purely military;

b) against religion;

c) of the press;

d) political.

The allegation of political ends or motives shall not prevent extradition when the deed constitutes principally an ordinary infraction of the penal law. The Supreme Federal Tribunal in taking cognizance of the request shall particularly determine the nature of the infraction.

Extradition having been granted, delivery will not be made except on condition that the country requesting the extradition shall guarantee that a political end or motive shall not concur to aggravate the penalty.

Article III. When the accused, against whom the request has been made, is being tried or is subject to a prison penalty or other penalty consequent upon his trial, for another act committed in Brazil, his extradition will be decided in accordance with the stipulations of this law, but the delivery will be effected after the conclusion of the trial or the termination of the sentence. Article IV. If the penalty, which the person to be extradited will- incur, be that of death or corporal punishment, according to the laws of the de

1 Not printed.

manding country, extradition will be granted only on condition that said penalty be commuted to one of imprisonment.

Article V. Extradition having been granted, the demanding country must agree not to charge the person extradited, except for an act or the acts for which his delivery is granted, unless, however, the accused freely and expressly consents to be tried for those other acts or if, when placed at liberty, he remains in the territory of the demanding State for a period exceeding one month.

Article VI. The demanding State may not, without the consent of the State of which the request is made deliver the extradited person to a third State which may claim him except under the last exception designated in the preceiling article.

Article VII. In case requests for extradition are made by different countries for the same person, if involving the same infraction, the request of the country in whose territory the infraction was committed shall be preferred; in case other acts are involved, the request which has to do with the most serious infraction will be preferred; in case the infractions are of equal gravity, that State will be granted the preference which shall first have made the request for delivery. In the last two cases extradition may be arranged for later delivery to the other demanding countries.

Article VIII. Extradition shall be requested through diplomatic channels, the request being accompanied by a copy or authenticated statement of the sentence of condemnation or the warrant or the minutes of the criminal proceedings, issued by the proper judge. These documents must contain a precise description of the delinquency, the place and date on and in which it was com mitted, and must be accompanied by copies of the texts of the laws applicable to the crime.

Article IX. The Minister for Foreign Affairs will transmit the request to the Minister of the Interior who will take steps looking to the arrest of the person to be extradited and for his appearance before the Supreme Federal Tribunal.

Sole Section. In urgent cases, provisional arrest may be effected as a precautionary measure and the accused held for sixty days during which time the country making the request shall present to the country of which the request is made a formal demand duly authenticated.

Article X. No request for extradition will be granted without the previous decision of the Supreme Federal Tribunal as to the legality and propriety of the same.

Upon the arrest of the person to be extradited, all the documents referring to the petition shall be sent to the Supreme Federal Tribunal, from whose decision there shall be no appeal.

The person to be extradited, who will be brought before the Tribunal, may be accompanied by a lawyer, his defense being a denial that he is the person sought, formal defects in the documents presented, and as to the legality of the extradition.

Article XI. If, within twenty days after the date of the granting of the extradition and notice to the effect that the person to be extradited is at the disposition of the demanding country, the diplomatic agent of the said country fail to place the fugitive in transit to the demanding country, the prisoner shall be set at liberty and never again subjected to arrest for the same cause of extradition.

Article XII. After publication of this law its text shall be transmitted to all countries with which Brazil maintains relations and all treaties of extradition still in force shall be abrogated.

Article XIII. Brazilians, even out of the Republic, may be tried and sentenced when, in foreign lands, they commit any of the crimes:

a) Against the independence, integrity and dignity of the native land (Penal Code, articles 87, 92, 94, 98, 101, 102 and 104);

b) Against the Constitution of the Republic and the form of its government (Penal Code, Articles 107 and 108);

e) Counterfeiting (Penal Code, articles 239 and 243);

d) Forgery of securities of the Federal Government, of the States and of Banks (Penal Code, articles 245 and 250).

Section 1. The judgment against such criminals however become[s] effective only upon their return, of their own accord or by extradition, to the country.

Section 2. The trial and judgment of foreigners who shall have committed any of the crimes here enumerated shall only take place when the criminals, of their own accord or by force, shall have come into the country.

Article XIV. Either a national or a foreigner may be tried and judged in Brazil who, in foreign territory, commits a crime against a Brazilian which entails, according to Brazilian law, a penalty of two years at least.

Section 1. The trial of a national or foreigner shall be commenced only upon requisition by the Minister of the Interior or complaint of the offended party, when, in cases where extradition is permitted, such trial is not requested by the country in whose territory the infraction was committed.

Section 2. The trial and judgment of the crimes referred to in article 14 shall not take place when the criminals have already, in a foreign land. been acquitted, punished or pardoned for such crimes, or when the crime or punishment has already been] prescribed according to a more favorable law.

The trial and judgment of crimes stipulated in article 13 shall not be ob structed by any decision or act whatever on the part of foreign authority. Nevertheless, the time served in foreign countries for such crimes shall be computed in the term of imprisonment.

Section 3. The Federal judiciary is always the proper branch to deal with those crimes committed in foreign territory.

Article XV. All provisions to the contrary are hereby revoked.

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 28, 1911; 90th of the Independence and 23rd of the Republic.

Rivadavia da Cunha Correa.

HERMES R. DA FONSECA,

File No. 211.32/3.

The Ambassador of Brazil to the Secretary of State.

[Translation.]

BRAZILIAN EMBASSY, Washington, January 23, 1913.

Mr. SECRETARY OF STATE: According to instructions which I have received from my Government, I have the honor to inform your excellency that article 12 of Law No. 2416, of June 24, 1911, governing the extradition of citizens and foreigners tried for crimes committed outside of Brazil, provides that all extradition treaties concluded by Brazil with the various countries shall be terminated.

The new law, recently promulgated, is much more ample than any of the treaties in force, and under it the rule for reciprocity exists only in case of the surrender of citizens. The procedure now established in Brazil in connection with an application for extradition has also undergone a simplification. These applications will always be made through diplomatic channels, and in the way of documents serving as evidence of the crime, the only thing required will be a copy of authentic transcript of the convicting sentence or of the sentence or order in the criminal proceedings issued by the competent judge. The following points must be clearly stated: the crime committed, the place and date of commission, and a citation of the text of the criminal law applicable to the case in the country requesting the surrender of the criminal. It shall be the duty of the Supreme Federal Court to examine the documents presented and to decide as to the admissibility of the application.

The Brazilian Government, in view of the liberal provisions of this new law would appreciate it if, waiving the clause of article 13

Should be June 28.

(For. Rel. 1903, page 32) of the extradition treaty concluded by Brazil and the United States on May 14, 1897, in which it is stipulated that said treaty". . . shall continue in force until six months after one of the contracting parties shall have notified the other of its intention to terminate it", the American Government would consider the said treaty as having ceased to exist for all intents and purposes from the date of the receipt of the present note.

I avail [etc.]

D. DA GAMA.

File No. 211.32/3.

No. 25.]

The Secretary of State to the Ambassador of Brazil.

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Washington, February 28, 1913. EXCELLENCY: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 23rd of January, in which you state that your Government has enacted the law of June 28, 1911, which carries out its policy in regard to extradition better than existing treaties do and which involves the abrogation of all the extradition treaties to which Brazil is a party. You state that the Brazilian Government would appreciate it if the United States would waive the clause of its extradition treaty with Brazil which provides that the treaty shall continue in force until six months after one of the contracting parties shall have notified the other of its intention to terminate it, and would consider the treaty to have ceased to exist for all intents and purposes from the date of its receipt of your note.

In reply I regret to inform you that this Government has no power to waive the treaty requirement that six months' notice of an intention to terminate its extradition treaty with Brazil be given; and I beg to inquire whether your Government has not overlooked the fact that, if the treaty should be abrogated, the United States could not surrender a fugitive from Brazil upon the request of the Government of that country. As the United States is not able to grant extradition in the absence of a treaty, it is its practice not to request the surrender of a fugitive by a foreign government with which it has no extradition treaty.

The Ambassador of the United States at Rio de Janeiro has already had the honor to point out to your Government that a serious obstacle to the conclusion of a satisfactory extradition treaty between the two Governments exists in the provision of the Brazilian law mentioned above to the effect that, if the offense for which extradition is sought is punishable by death or corporal punishment, extradition shall be granted only on condition that the penalty be commuted to imprisonment. Other difficulties in framing an extradition treaty would be caused by the fact that the law contains no list of extraditable offenses, and by its provision that no request for extradition will be granted without a previous decision by the Supreme Federal Tri• banal of Brazil as to its legality and propriety.

I avail [etc.]

P. C. KNOX.