File No. 865.012/4
Chargé Jay to the Secretary of State
Rome, May 26, 1916.
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instruction No. 333 of May 1, in regard to the general subject of the detention [Page 418] in Italy of American citizens of Italian origin and to the desirability of concluding a naturalization treaty.
The Department will have received my despatch No. 494 of May 9, enclosing a copy of the Foreign Office’s reply to the Department’s request for an official interpretation of the provisions of Article 7 of the Italian law of citizenship promulgated June 30., 1912, concerning the application of “election of nationality “on the part of persons born in the United States of unnaturalized Italian parents.
As regards the detention of the wives and children of naturalized citizens who have failed to return to Italy for military service, the Department will have seen by my telegram of May 23, No. 639, that I have now fortunately been assured by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs that such detention will no longer take place. My previous telegram and recent despatch on this special subject will have shown that I had anticipated your desire as contained in the instruction under acknowledgment that the Embassy “remonstrate earnestly” whenever such cases came to its attention. As will have been seen, the Embassy has been awaiting an occasion when it could be proved that such detention took place under the direct instruction of the central Government and not through overzeal on the part of local officials. As soon as it had obtained this proof I took up the matter most energetically, with the result that I have now succeeded in obtaining a definite promise that this quite untenable and indeed really surprising action on the part of a great European power should cease.
The question of a naturalization treaty with Italy has been constantly before the Embassy and the arguments suggested in your instruction have already been used at the Foreign Office. The Ambassador, some weeks before his departure on leave, after discussing the matter fully with the Minister for Foreign Affairs, sent him a personal letter enclosing copies of our important treaties of this nature, and at the same time drew special attention to the principle of reversion to the nationality of birth under certain circumstances which is embodied in these treaties and is well exemplified by Article 4 of our Treaty of 1868 with the North German Confederation, which you have quoted.
I have lately had long conversations with the Ministers of Brazil and Chile and the Chargé d’Affaires of the Argentine on this general subject. They all inform me that their citizens of Italian origin in Italy, whether naturalized or native-born but of unnaturalized fathers, are suffering the same fate as ours, and they were unanimous in agreeing that official action on their part was useless in view of the absence of naturalization treaties.
The Brazilian Minister informed me that he had carefully studied the question of a treaty but had come to the conclusion that it was hopeless to expect Italy to agree to one, as Brazil is prevented by her constitution from making any concessions to Italy. He stated that Brazil followed the doctrine of jus loci; i. e., the child of a foreigner born in Brazil is held to be Brazilian until it comes of age when it may opt its father’s nationality; while Italy maintained that of jus sanguinis by which the child takes its father’s nationality. His excellency added that he had reported as above to his Government, which has agreed with him that the matter of a treaty had better be left in abeyance.
[Page 419]The Chilean Minister expressed practically the same views, but as there are comparatively few Italians in Chile he was somewhat less interested in the question.
The Argentine Chargé d’Affaires informed me that the late Argentine Minister had been endeavoring for several years past to interest the Italian Government in regard to a treaty of naturalization but had met with little success. The Foreign Office, it appears, had moreover informed him that it could not discuss the matter during the present war.
My own impression is that, while it will be difficult for us to induce Italy to conclude a convention in the usual lines, it is not altogether impossible. I base this upon the fact that the United States, apparently unlike the South American Republics, is not prohibited by its constitution from conceding something; namely, the principle underlying our expatriation and naturalization acts by which a naturalized citizen may lose his acquired nationality after two years residence in the country of his origin.
I fear, however, and indeed have been informed by the permanent Undersecretary of State, Commendatore de Martino, that the Royal Government finds it “impracticable” to discuss the matter until after the war. The reason, I presume, is that Italy, like other European countries with large emigrant populations oversea, needs every available man for military service and is therefore disinclined to take any action tending to loosen the ties of nationality which binds her citizens abroad to the country of their origin.
I have [etc.]