In July 1882, the Ambassador and half the Embassy staff were on
leave in England. As matters were very slack just then, the Charge
d'Affaires and the Second Secretary had gone to Finland for four
days' fishing, leaving me in charge of the Embassy, with an
Attache to help me. My servant came to me early one morning as I
was in bed, and told me that an official of the Higher Police was
outside my front door, and begged for permission to come into my
flat. I have explained elsewhere that Ambassadors, their families,
their staffs, and even all the Embassy servants enjoy what is
called exterritoriality; that is, that by a polite fiction the
Embassy and the houses or apartments of the Secretaries are
supposed to be on the actual soil of the country they represent.
Consequently, the police of the country cannot enter them except
by special permission, and both the Secretaries and their servants
are immune from arrest, and are not subject to the laws of the
country, though they can, of course, be expelled from it. I gave
the policeman leave to enter, and he came into my bedroom.
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