Ambassadors

Inangahua Times, 13 November 1934, Page 4

Ambassadors

The King has received the new Polish Ambassador to London, and also the new Ministers in London for Persia, Nicaragua aed Haiti. The practice of sending ambassadors to reside at foreign courts seems to date from the Reformation, and the institution was regularised and more definitely organised after the famous Pesce of Westphalia (1648). It has long been an established rule of International law that ambassadors an- 1 their suites ordinarily possess the right of inviolability, or exemption from inquiry* restraint, molestation, or interference. Such right Is retained by them in the event of their withdrawal or dismissal until, their return to their own countrv. Under no circumstances may an ambassador be tried for a criminal offence in tbe country to which he Is accredited. Nor can he be arres:ed

under ordinary criminal process. He mav, hm- v«r, be arrested for intriguing against the couDtrv in vhich his m.s c, nn lie*. The correct .course when an Jor is 9u<;D”Cted of criminal acts is to hand him over, to *he authorities of his own countries. Ambassadors are forbidden by rules which are most jealously enforced, from any association, direct or indirect, with the public affairs of tbe country to which they are accredited.