No. 158.
Mr. Pendleton to Mr. Bayard.
Legation of
the United States,
Berlin, March 29, 1886.
(Received April 12.)
No. 219.]
Sir: Referring to my dispatch, No. 188, of the 1st
ultimo, and its inclosure, in relation to the case of Charles Ludwig George,
in which my intervention was made by the Department instruction No. 19, of
the 7th of July last, I have now to inclose a copy and translation of the
note from the foreign office received on the 27th instant.
It would seem that the foreign office holds that by virtue of the French law
of February 7, 1851, George was a French citizen with a possibility to
divest himself of that character by certain acts and declarations within one
year after attaining his majority; that the French law remained in force in
Alsace-Lorraine until some date in the year 1873, when it was superseded by
the law of the German Empire of June 1, 1870, and that by virtue of the
last-named law, George became a German subject, and could not lose that
allegiance until after his emigration and continued residence abroad for ten
years. He left Alsace-Lorraine in 1875, and returned in 1884.
The foreign office also says that George’s naturalization in America before
the expiration of the ten years’ residence named in the law does not affect
his legal condition in Germany, for the reason that the treaties of 1868 do
not apply to Alsace-Lorraine.
Awaiting further instructions,
I have. &c.,
[Inclosure in No.
219.—Translation.]
Count Bismarck to
Mr. Pendleton.
Foreign
Office, Berlin, March 26,
1886.
In his esteemed note of the 1st of February, 1886 (foreign office, No.
166), the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United
States of America, Mr. George H. Pendleton, has expressed the opinion
that the French law of February 7, 1851, mentioned in the note of the
undersigned of the 22d January of this year, according to which the son
horn in France of an alien, himself born in France, must be looked on as
a Frenchman, cannot be considered for the purpose of determining the
question of the allegiance of Carl Ludwig Georg, who was born on the 9th
of January, 1859, at Lambertsloch, in Lower Alsace, for the reason that
that law has become void in Alsace-Lorraine in consequence of its
acquisition by Germany and the introduction of German laws.
The undersigned allows himself on the other hand to remark that this view
rests on an unfounded assumption. According to the principles which have
been appropriate in the acquisition and the establishment of the
constitution of the imperial territory of Alsace-Lorraine, the law in
question, like all laws then in force in the territory, continued to be
valid immediately after the acquisition. This law lost its force only in
the year 1873, when the law of June 1, 1870, concerning the acquisition
and loss of allegiance to the confederation and states was introduced
into Alsace-Lorraine.
All persons born in Alsace-Lorraine, who, according to the French law of
the year 1851, were to be held to be Frenchmen, became Germans with the
cession of this territory [Page 326] to
Germany in so far as they did not make valid choice of the French
nationality under the provision of article 2 of the treaty of peace of
May 10, 1871.
The right to make choice of the condition of foreigners after the
attainment of majority according to the provision of the French law was
lost by the introduction of the imperial law of June 1, 1870, and they
are from that time onward finally to be considered as Germans, that is
to say, as Alsace-Lorraine subjects.
This applies especially to Carl Ludwig Georg, as the son of a naturalized
American born in Alsace-Lorraine. That the son was afterwards also
naturalized in the United States changes in no degree his legal
position, because the treaties regulating nationality of 1868 have, as
already mentioned, no application to Alsace-Lorraine.
The undersigned hopes that the minister after weighing this point will
not hesitate to recognize that the German authorities were justified in
bringing to execution the punishment awarded to Georg, the son, for
evasion of military duty, as was done.
The undersigned, &c.,
