NEWCASTLE CONSULATE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19045, 15 December 1923, Page 9

NEWCASTLE CONSULATE

QUESTION OF ITS RE-OPENING. ATTITUDE..OF UNITED STATES. FnM Association—By Telegraph—Copyright WASHINGTON, December 16. (Received Doo. 14, at 5.5 jxm.) The question of re-establishing the United States Consulate at .Newcastle (England) will be finally determined by the Government when it receives from the British Foreign Office a statement publicly exonerating Consul 'Brookes and viceOonsul Slater from the charges made against them' by British shipping interests and sustained by the Foreign Office. These charges led the United States to order the Consulate to be' permanently closed. It is authoritatively stated that once the British exonerate the officials the incident will be ended.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

(Received Dec. 14, at 9 p.pi.) The State attention is being called to dispatches from London stating that Commercial Wireless is surprised that the Newcastle consulate is still closed in view" of Colonel Harvey’s statement before returning home that the dispute had been amicably settled. A correspondent was informed that the Government would determine whether the Consulate will be reopened when the British Foreign Office publicly exonerates Consul Brooks and Vice-Consul Slater.—A. and N.Z. Cable.

A notice was posted at the American Consulate in Newcastle-on-Tyne, on August 31, 1922, stating that instructions from the Consul-General in London advised that the British Government had suspended or revoked the exequaturs (the written recognition given to a consul by the Government to he is accredited) of the Consul, Mr F. G. ’Slater, and viceOonsul, Mr R. M. Brookes, at eWcastle-on-Tyne. Therefore the office was closed for the time being. It was subsequently learned that the closing by the United States Government of the American Consulate at Newcastle-ou-Tyne was due to the fact that the American Consul there had been relieved of his dnties. His exequatur was withdrawn by the British Government on the allegation that difficulties had been put in the way of the viseing of passports to passengers who failed to promise they would travel by American vessels. The action of the British Government was taken after tire American Government had been duly notified of its intention, partly under the terms of the Anglo-American Commercial Treaty of 1815, and ' partly under the recognised principle of international law that a Government can withdraw the exequaturs of foreign consuls whenever in its judgment it has reasonable cause to do so. In 1866 the American Government similarly revoked the exequaturs of the British Consuls in New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, because these Consuls were alleged to have helped recruiting for the British Army in the United States.