OCR Text |
Show BORAH'S ACTION! STIRS CAPITOL Summoning Russ Ambas-sador Ambas-sador Held Encroachment on Harding's Rights WASHINGTON, April 22. (By The Associated frees). Senator Borah's determination to have the Russian ambassador am-bassador before the senate committee In tho talk of the moment in the cap- Uuutwardlv it Is a simple proposal to have Mr Bakhmeetetf tell the senate. what he knows about the cond ucl anl alleged atrocltlee of Genera Bemon-off Bemon-off thf Cossack leader, in Siberia, incidentally. in-cidentally. Senator Borah wants to get the ambaaaador to give details about what government he represent-... BW t-nder th.- MJi-fnee there is something deeper and more far reaching, ome-lhns ome-lhns whi h one set of minds con- tends goes bad; to the wisdom 01 tnc 1 ,;,! is or the constitution and on the 0 aei hand semethlng which another sot of mindH contend ought to be 1 Viewed View-ed in the light Of Changed conditions and progress The didlomats aro deepiv disturbed two ways Some or t Wi-im' l--.il 1 ''I ' l"-e:iU-l n or their ancient rlghln and immunities. Borne Othi .'.'hough they do not sa so, Indicate they would not be an-nieasen an-nieasen s precedent which might es--..bllHh the propnty of having direct Intercom so with officials of Hie government gov-ernment outside the legislative branch. .s th- mattei sl.inds now Si-cic-tarv Hughes has informed the senate that Mr Halhni-..' t T is the ambassador or Russia and Hit as such cannot be served hailing him before the senate committee. Senate Borah aays no will deal with the m ilter further" from tht floor of the senate Meanwhile. It might be said that the exccuile branch of the government is uneasy over the predicament, possibly regarding regard-ing it as a progressive symptom of what wnv have described as the gradual grad-ual encroachment of th- legislative branch of the government on the executive. ex-ecutive. FEW EXCEPTIONS NOTED. The old- traditions of International law confer widest Immunities on diplomats, dip-lomats, ; their persons and establisn-ments establisn-ments and onlv bv such saicsuards can a diplomatic "officer he of :ny real srrlce to his own government. As far back a9 1870 congress enacted explicit ami far reaching laws In accord With those traditions. It has happened that resident diploma; ic agents have been quite willing personally to respond to Inquiries and supply their testimony to Arm rlcnn courts, but it Is also the fact that by the terms of International law they are strlcth forbidden to do si except by special directions of their own governments and Ibis 1 rarely given, even though miscarriage of Justice Jus-tice occurs and criminals escape Just punishment. In the present Instance St is well un- Ideratpod that Mr Bakhmeteff has no disposition to prot i t the t'os-sach gen-Aral gen-Aral from prosecution The Russian embassy had little tv do with General Semenoff when he passed through Washington recently on his way to New York, where he had expected to take ship for Paris to meet the colony col-ony 0 fadherenls of the Kerensky regime, re-gime, and plan for th" future. Though quite willing to tell all that he knows 01 ttie doings "f Semenoff In Siberia, which by the way is suid to be vory Little, Ambassador Bakhmeteff believes that he can respond to such a call only through the state department if he is to be bound by the rules of diplomacy di-plomacy OTHERS ABE WILLING diplomatic body here, however, who might be willing to consider the relinquishment re-linquishment of some of the immunities immuni-ties thrown around them by law in return for the prh liege t-f addressing themselves to the great .committees of . ongreas on matters of importance and interest to their own governments. Some of thorn are eager to get before be-fore the ways and means committee and the senate finance committee on the tariff hill and endeavor to prevent pre-vent what they regard as serious in-Jun- to trade interests by the lack of u nuerstand i ng of the committeemen. The present head of the state department depart-ment is "understood to be ready to do everything neceasary to stem the tide of congressional Interference In diplomatic diplo-matic negotiations outside the regular channels controlled by the executive branch of the government Thl objection ob-jection to those Irregular conimuni-i-atlons applies not only to advances from the resident diplomatic corps towards to-wards congress hut equally to moves by congressmen to mix in pending negotiations ne-gotiations by direct exchanK'" WILSON RESENTFUL. It is by no means a party matter, either, for as a matter of fact the W ilson administration was even rnoi " resentful of such practices than the '.present. Soon after he assumed the office of secretary of state, Mr Bryan did not bi.Mtate to administer a sharp admonition to Senator Korah when the latter cabled directly 10 the president presi-dent of Salvador In regard to ihe attitude at-titude of the Salvadorean government towards the treaty which was being iieKOtlatc-d for the regulation of tho rights of rentral American countries llr. the const ruction of inter-ucea nlc .eanal across Nicaragua. PresKien'. Cleveland sternly opposed congressional congression-al interference in negotiations Willi I foreign nations; President Wilson almost al-most contemptuously spurned such attempts at-tempts and the present administration l- evidently apprehensive over the situation sit-uation II U.T In CALLED. - Probably ?ur that reason it has been deemed timeW L0 call a halt on such proceedings and hence the letter of Secretary Hughes to the president of t.he senate pointing our that the Rus lalan ambassador Is entitled to immunity immun-ity from the service of write by the body And if any question should be raised as to tb status of Mr Bakhmeteff Bakh-meteff att to whether or not he ij really an ambassador, it will be recalled re-called by the administration, it is for the executive aJone and not eongret-01 eongret-01 the courts to pas on that question as th-- constitution of the United States defining the presidential powers reads, "lie shall receive, ujnbassador and other public ministers oo |