File 868/1904 Pt 5 'Consular: Peru; jurisdiction of Peruvian Consul-General at Hong Kong' [‎152r] (43/44)

V
Political,
No. 82.
India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , London,
1st September 1905.
To His Excellency the Right Honourable the Governor
General of India in Council.
My Lord,
I have
Commissions issued by Foreign
Governments to their Consular
Representatives in India.
duly received and considered in Council Your Ex
cellency’s Letter No. 130 (Foreign,
General), of the 13th July last,
relative to the Commissions issued
by Foreign Governments to their
Consular representatives in India. You recommend that, in all cases in
which these Commissions define the Consular jurisdiction as extending
beyond the particular ports to which the Consular officers are appointed,
it should be suggested to the Embassy concerned that the Commission
should be limited to that particular port.
2. As regards the correspondence with the Foreign Office mentioned
in the last paragraph of your letter, it should be observed that
Mr. Campbell’s letter of 12th April 1905, to which you specially refer,
made no proposal for suggesting to the Austro-Hungarian Government
that the Commissions which they issued to their Consuls should be revised,
but stated that it was proposed, in issuing the King’s Exequatur to
Herr Wein, as Consul at Bombay, “ to omit all reference to his district
in that instrument,” and to inform the Charge d’Affaires that “ it is the
“ invariable rule not to grant the Foreign Consuls in India any
“ jurisdiction outside the actual port of residence.” It is true that a
suggestion for limiting the Commissions issued by the German Govern
ment to their Consuls in India was made in Lord Lansdowne’s letter to
Count Metternich of the 4th February 1901, but the object of that letter
was to explain that no change in the position of the Consul at Bombay
was created by the fact that it had been found necessary to issue the
Exequatur to Mr. Hopman as Consul at Bombay only, whereas the
Exequatur issued to his predecessor had had a more extended scope.
And Mr. Campbell’s letter of the 4th February 1904, forwarding for my
information Lord Lansdowne's letter to Count Metternich, stated “ that
“ it is, of course, not within the power of the Secretary of State to
“ correct Commissions issued by Heads of Foreign States, but that this
“ Department has been, and will continue to be, careful in all cases,
“ pursuant to the arrangement come to with the India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. , to consult
“ your Department as to the exact wording to be used in issuing the
“ King’s Exequatur.”
16*314. I. 1562.