Office of the Historian

File No. 365.117/452

Ambassador Page to the Secretary of State

[Extract]
No. 566
American Embassy,
Rome, October 14, 1916.

Sir: In reply to the Department’s instructions No. 370 of July 25 last, relative to the release from the Italian army of Hostilio Carlo Giomi, I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of a Foreign Office note received to-day containing the decision of the military authorities, refusing to grant the release requested for the reasons set forth in that note.

I have [etc.]

Thos. Nelson Page
[Inclosure—Translation]

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs to Ambassador Page

Foreign Office,
Rome, October 13, 1916.

In reference to its note No. 1229 of August 17 last, the Royal Ministry for Foreign Affairs has the honor to bring to the notice of the Embassy of the United States of America that it has to-day been advised by the Ministry of War that the competent military authorities of the Kingdom regret very much not to be able to consent to the release from military service of Hostilio Carlo Giomi, born in New Mexico, U. S. America, in 1889, in whose case the American Embassy has interested itself.

The military authorities of the Kingdom hold that, while this young man may have lost his Italian citizenship during his minority in consequence of the naturalization of his father as an American citizen, which was obtained in the United States in 1892, the son, nevertheless, is subject to military obligations in Italy, in accordance with the explicit provisions of Article 12 of the Civil Code which was still in full force and effect at the time the class to which the son belonged was called upon for service in the Italian army.