No. 8.
Mr. Taft to
Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Legation of
the United States,
Vienna, May 13, 1884.
(Received May 26.)
No. 140.]Sir: I have the honor to report the case of Vitus
Taxacher, who was released from military service here on my application. The
principle on which the case turns had been recently discussed with the
foreign office of this Empire, but I think that this is the first case which
has arisen where the facts directly involved the point and were acted
upon.
Taxacher was summoned for examination for military service, being of the
proper age, and was found not then competent, but was ordered to return in
one year for further examination. During that year he emigrated to America,
and there remained long enough to be naturalized.
Afterwards he came back to his native home in Austria to visit his relations,
where he was immediately enrolled in the Austrian army and made to serve as
a soldier.
After he had been some months in the service, he, through an attorney,
applied to me to know whether he had any remedy.
I presented the case to the foreign office in a dispatch, a copy of which I
inclose, and received an answer thereto, the letter of the secretary of
state of the Empire, of which I also inclose a copy. Agreeably thereto
Taxacher was promptly discharged.
I have, &c.,
[Page 10]
[Inclosure 1 in No. 140.]
Mr. Taft to Count
Kalnoky.
Legation of the United States,
Vienna, November 16,
1883.
Your Excellency: There has been presented to
the undersigned, minister of the United States of North America, a
complaint, which is herewith inclosed, asking the undersigned to apply
to the Austro-Hungarian Government for the release from military service
in the Austrian army, of Vitus Taxacher. The case, as stated, is that
Taxacher, at the age of nineteen, in the month of April, 1874, was
examined before this Government for military service and found
incapable, but ordered to return a year after for a second examination;
that during the year he emigrated to America, and there, remained eight
years and became duly naturalized as an American citizen, as evidenced
by the duly authenticated certificate of his naturalization, which is
herewith inclosed. That in June, 1883, he returned to visit his father
in Bohemia, where he was arrested and subjected to military service, and
has been several months so detained against his will.
I respectfully submit that under the provisions of the treaty of
September 20, 1870, he is entitled to be released, as he was not at the
time of his emigration enrolled as a recruit, nor did he fall within any
other of the conditions of clauses 1, 2, 3, of Article II of said
treaty, which enumerate the cases in which an American naturalized
citizen who has emigrated from Austria-Hungary can be called to account
on his return to this Empire for a violation of his military obligations
to this Government.
I avail myself, &c.,
[Inclosure 2 in No. 140.]
Mr. Pasetti to Mr.
Taft.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
Vienna, January 15,
1884.
The imperial-royal ministry of foreign affairs has not failed to
institute inquiries, after having received the esteemed note of November
16, 1883, numbered F. O. 58, the inclosures of which are herewith
returned, concerning the claim of Vitus Taxacher, and now has the honor
to inform the envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of the
United States of America, Mr. Alphonso Taft, that investigations show
that the above named, after a sojourn of five years in the United States
of America, has acquired his citizenship there in the year 1881, a fact
which was unknown to the imperial-royal authorities at the time they
enrolled him in the army; that in consequence thereof, and in conformity
with Articles I and II of the treaty of September 20, 1870 (R. G. B. No.
74, ex. 1881), he has been discharged from the ranks of the
imperial-royal army.
The undersigned avails himself, &c.,
