Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 8, 1908

File No 14776/2.

The Acting Secretary of State to Ambassador Leishman.

[Telegram.—Paraphrase.]

Department of State,
Washington, July 30, 1908.

(Mr. Bacon, acknowledging the telegram of July 25,¹ informs Mr. Leishman that section 1068 of the Revised Statutes permits aliens, citizens of a country which grants reciprocal privileges, to sue the United States in the Court of Claims, and that certain Turkish subjects have brought suit against the United States in the Court of Claims to recover for alleged excessive customs duties paid.

Mr. Leishman is instructed to reply by dispatch whether an American citizen could sue the Turkish Government in a like case in Turkish courts, and whether the remedy accorded is as practicable, efficient, and absolute as remedy in the Court of Claims Also to explain as far as possible the nature of the cases in which an American citizen can sue the Turkish Government in Turkish courts.)

1. Not printed.