No. 280.
Mr. Wurts
to Mr. Evarts.
Rome, August 11, 1877. (Received August 27.)
Sir: Your instruction No. 587, dated July 25, 1877, with a copy of a communication from Mr. Onesti in behalf of Felice Largomarsino, reached me yesterday morning. By this instruction you authorize this legation to use its good offices to obtain the man’s discharge.
My dispatch No. 692 of the 7th instant, informed you of the interview I had with the secretary-general of foreign affairs, with the object of obtaining information in the case, and, during the conversation on the subject in general, of the very decided tone taken by the secretary-general in speaking of this and kindred cases, declaring that the Italian Government would not swerve from the point of exacting from their born subjects fulfillment of the obligations of their first allegiance.
I have now had a second interview with the aforementioned officer of the Italian Government, and have informed him that the Government of the United States has interested itself in the case of this young man, and hopes that he will be discharged from the military service of Italy. To this the secretary-general replied in the same sense as in my former interview on the same subject. He added that there were two categories of Italian-born naturalized citizens or subjects of foreign powers: The first are the children of parents naturalized abroad, who, by the act of their parents, have themselves become aliens; for such cases there is a certain ambiguity in the Italian code that leaves a door open for their escape [Page 461] from the articles of conscription; although, in his own mind, the children of naturalized parents are quite as liable to the obligations of allegiance as other born Italian subjects. The second category are the children who have become naturalized in a foreign country, whose parents have not changed their nationality but have remained subjects of the King; for these there is no evasion of their service in the army, should they return to the land of their birth. The case of Largomarsino belongs to this category, the parent or relation who took him to America not having, it is stated, become a naturalized citizen of that country.
As your instruction does not direct me to make a formal demand for the release of Largomarsino, and in the certainty of an unfavorable reception by the ministry of foreign affairs of any written communication with such a request, I have deemed it prudent to limit myself to the above-stated action, and therefore ask for further instructions for whatever steps are now to be taken in the matter.
I have, &c.,