Office of the Historian

711.584/2

The Minister in Sweden (Morehead) to the Secretary of State

No. 283
Stockholm, June 23, 1931.
[Received July 8.]

Sir: I have the honor to refer to the Department’s instruction No. 86, dated December 1, 1928,16 addressed to my predecessor, directing him to bring the Joint Resolution of Congress, approved by the President May 28, 1928,17 to the attention of the Swedish Government with a view to the conclusion of a convention between the United States and Sweden, providing that persons born in the United States of Swedish parentage and nationalized American citizens shall not be held liable for military service or any other act of allegiance during a stay in the territory of Sweden while citizens of the United States of America under the laws thereof. At the same time my predecessor was directed to propose to the Swedish Government an agreement concerning the termination of dual nationality in respect of the nationals of both countries. As reported in Mr. Harrison’s despatch No. 458, dated January 10, 1929,18 the proposals contained in the Department’s instruction were presented to the Minister for Foreign Affairs who promised to reply as soon as possible.

I am now in receipt of a reply from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, dated June 10, 1931, a copy and translation of which are enclosed herewith,19 referring to Mr. Harrison’s note of January 9, 1929. Attached [Page 759] to the reply from the Minister for Foreign Affairs was an original and duplicate draft of a convention proposed by the Swedish Government. The original of the draft proposal, which contains the Swedish and English texts side by side, is enclosed herewith.…

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Respectfully yours,

John M. Morehead
[Enclosure]

Draft Convention Proposed by the Swedish Government20

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Article 1

A person possessing from his birth the nationality of both the High Contracting Parties who has always resided in the territory of one of the Parties shall lose the nationality of the other Party on attaining the age of twenty-two years, unless he either upon his own application expressly has obtained the permission of that Party to remain its national or, although he has never had residence in its territory, nevertheless has sojourned there under circumstances indicating his community with the country in question.

The stipulation of this article shall, however, have no application to a woman who is or has been married.

Article 2

A person possessing the nationality of both the High Contracting Parties who habitually resides in the territory of one of them and who is in fact most closely connected with that Party shall be exempt from all military obligations in the territory of the other Party.

Article 3

The present agreement shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof and by His Majesty the King of Sweden by and with the consent of the Riksdag of Sweden and shall enter in effect three months after the exchange of ratifications at Washington and shall remain in force until the expiration of six months from the day on which one of the Parties shall have given notice to the other for its termination.

In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Treaty in duplicate in the English and Swedish languages and have thereunto affixed their seals.

Done at Stockholm …

  1. See instruction No. 167, December 1, 1928, to the Ambassador in Belgium, and footnote 51, Foreign Relations, 1928, vol. i, p. 497.↩
  2. 45 Stat. 789.↩
  3. Foreign Relations, 1929, vol. i, p. 485.↩
  4. Not printed.↩
  5. Preamble omitted.↩