File No. 21641/9.
Chargé Harvey to the Secretary of State.
Bucharest, February 5, 1910.
Sir: I have the honor to report on January 8 I received from Mr. Thomas M. Burckes, chief of police of Lynn, Mass., a communication stating that one Vahan Nalbandian had been indicted by the grand jury of Essex County in that State for the murder of one Minas K. Monigan, and that the said Nalbandian was supposed to be at Silistra, Bulgaria. He inclosed a circular police description, with pictures of the accused, and asked that the Bulgarian authorities be communicated with and the man apprehended and placed under arrest to await the receipt of extradition papers from his Government.
I immediately went to the Bulgarian Legation in this city and communicated to them the request as above stated, and gave them the circular and picture of the accused. Yesterday I received a letter from the State’s attorney (procureur du tribunal), of Silistra, Theodore Maneff, stating that Nalbandian has been arrested and had acknowledged that he was the person wanted by the Lynn police. After consultation with the Bulgarian Legation as to whether their Government would permit the extradition of the accused, there being no treaty of convention of extradition between the two countries, I telegraphed the Bulgarian foreign office, stating that Nalbandian was wanted by the American police for a murder committed at Lynn, and that he had been arrested in Bulgaria and was now being held on my demand, and asked whether the Bulgarian Government would permit his extradition upon the presentation of the necessary papers, and whether they would hold the prisoner until such papers should arrive.
In response, I received a telegram last night from the Bulgarian Government stating that they had instructed their legation here how to act in the matter. This morning I received a message by telephone from the Bulgarian Legation that their Government would [Page 123] surrender the accused on the presentation of proper extradition papers if the same were sent without delay. I immediately telegraphed the department that the accused was wanted by the Lynn police and that the Bulgarian authorities would surrender him on presentation of the proper extradition papers.
I have, etc.,