No. 239.
Mr. Davis
to Mr. Fish.
Berlin, January 11, 1875. (Received February 8.)
Sir: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your instructions, up to and including No. 40.
On the 6th instant a Prussian subject appeared at this legation and stated that his son, Edward Griibel, a native of Prussia, who had emigrated to the United States in the year 1867, at the age of 17, without [Page 490] having previously received a summons to serve in the army, had been naturalized in the United States, and had resided there for seven years; that on Christmas day last he arrived home on a visit to his parents that on the 5th instant he was condemned by the “land and stadt gericht” to pay a fine of 150 reichmark for non-performance of military service; that he had informed the court that he was a citizen of the United States, and had exhibited a passport from the Department of State; that the court had answered that it was unnecessary to produce the passport, as he was liable to the fine irrespective of citizenship, and that he was at once committed to prison for non-payment of the fine.
I immediately prepared a note to Mr. von Bülow, describing the details of the case, and expressing the hope that, should the facts as stated be found to be correct, Griibel would be discharged and the fine remitted. 1 took this note in person to the foreign office, and in handing it to Mr. Von Bülow, I repeated nearly the substance of it, and I said that the case was one demanding immediate attention.
He assured me that it should be attended to at once.
I took the opportunity to read to him from your No. 35 the question which you had asked there: “Whether the unallowed emigration of a person of an age making him liable to military duty is of itself an offense by the law of Germany, or whether the issue of a notice to perform military service is requisite to constitute an offense?”
He answered that every German subject is by law required to be ready to perform military duty on reaching the requisite age, and that no notice is necessary in order to entail liability to do the duty or to warrant a fine for neglect to perform it.
I then asked him what was the nature of the court which imposed such fines, and passed upon such cases as those of Grübel. He replied that it was a mixed court—partly military and partly civil.
I asked whether, before that tribunal, a defendant might plead naturalization in the United States, and whether such a plea when established would operate as a bar against the imposition of a fine, in accordance with the construction put upon the naturalization treaties by the German government and by the United States.
He answered that the fact of the naturalization would not be taken into consideration by the court; that it was necessary to have that fact brought to the attention of the foreign office; that the ultimate settlement of these cases lay with the minister of war and the secretary of state for foreign affairs jointly, by whom questions arising under the treaties were to be decided.
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I have, &c.,