[755] See below, [vol. II. § 157], and Wharton, I. § 97.
Envoy interfering with affairs of a third State.
§ 400. There is no doubt that an envoy must not interfere with affairs concerning the State to which he is accredited and a third State. If nevertheless he does interfere, he enjoys no privileges whatever against such third State. Thus, in 1734, the Marquis de Monti, the French envoy in Poland, who took an active part in the war between Poland and Russia, was made a prisoner of war by the latter and not released till 1736, although France protested.[756]
[756] See Martens, "Causes Célèbres," I. p. 207.
XI THE RETINUE OF DIPLOMATIC ENVOYS
Vattel, IV. §§ 120-124—Hall, § 51—Phillimore, II. §§ 186-193—Twiss, I. § 218—Moore, IV. §§ 664-665—Ullmann, §§ 47 and 51—Geffcken in Holtzendorff, III. pp. 660-661—Heffter, § 221—Rivier, I. pp. 458-461—Nys, II. pp. 386-390—Pradier-Fodéré, III. §§ 1472-1486—Fiore, II. Nos. 1164-1168—Calvo, III. §§ 1348-1350—Martens, II. § 16—Roederer, "De l'application des immunités de l'ambassadeur au personnel de l'ambassade" (1904), pp. 22-84.
Different Classes of Members of Retinue.
§ 401. The individuals accompanying an envoy officially, or in his private service, or as members of his family, or as couriers, compose his retinue. The members of the retinue belong, therefore, to four different classes. All those individuals who are officially attached to an envoy are members of the legation and are appointed by the home State of the envoy. To this first class belong the Councillors, Attachés, Secretaries of the Legation; the Chancellor of the Legation and his assistants; the interpreters, and the like; the chaplain, the doctor, and the legal advisers, provided that they are appointed by the home State and sent specially as members of the legation. A list of these members of legation is handed over by the envoy to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the receiving State and is revised from time to time. The Councillors and Secretaries of Legation are personally presented to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and very often also to the head of the receiving State. The second class comprises all those individuals who are in the private service of the envoy and of the members of legation, such as servants of all kinds, the private secretary of the envoy, the tutor and the governess of his children. The third class consists of the members of the family of the envoy—namely, his wife, children, and such of his other near relatives as live within his family and under his roof. And, lastly, the fourth class consists of the so-called couriers. They are the bearers of despatches sent by the envoy to his home State, who on their way back also bear despatches from the home State to the envoy. Such couriers are attached to most legations for the guarantee of the safety and secrecy of the despatches.
Privileges of Members of Legation.
§ 402. It is a universally recognised[757] rule of International Law that all members of a legation are as inviolable and exterritorial as the envoy himself. They must, therefore, be granted by the receiving State exemption from criminal and civil jurisdiction, exemption from police,[758] subpœna as witnesses, and taxes. They are considered, like the envoy himself, to retain their domicile within their home State. Children born to them during their stay within the receiving State are considered born on the territory of the home State. And it must be emphasised that it is not within the envoy's power to waive these privileges of members of legation, although the home State itself can waive these privileges. Thus when, in 1909, Wilhelm Beckert, the Chancellor of the German Legation in Santiago de Chili, murdered the porter of this legation, a Chilian subject, and then set fire to the Chancery in order to conceal his embezzlements of money belonging to the legation, the German Government consented to his being prosecuted in Chili; he was tried, found guilty, and executed at Santiago on July 5, 1910.