Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, Transmitted to Congress, With the Annual Message of the President, December 3, 1888, Part I

No. 217.
Mr. Denby to Mr. Bayard.

[Extract.]

Legation of the United States,
Peking, July 9, 1888. (Received August 20.)

No. 659.]

Sir: As matter of information on an interesting question, I have the honor to inclose herewith a translation of the agreement lately made by the German minister with the Tsung-li Yamên as to the status of Chinese women married to German subjects.

The understanding reached is that such women shall be subject to the laws of the husband’s nationality. Under Section 1994, Revised Statutes, second edition^*, page 350, and section 147^†, Con. Reg., 1888, this result does not follow a marriage where the contracting alien is an American, because under recent statutes no Chinese subject can be naturalized.

Americans have occasionally married Chinese women.

Intermarriage with persons of other nationalities is common. I personally know some very respectable families where the mother is Chinese and the father an alien.

The perplexities attending the condition of a Chinese woman married to an American are manifold and embarrassing. She alone of the family would be subject to Chinese law and beyond the pale of American protection. Her husband’s death would leave her practically without any nationality.

Doubtless, in practice, such an abhorrent condition would be softened as much as possible by the consuls and the legation. But the absolute law still remains and may constitute a bar to legal assistance to defenseless and dependent women, who, by a life-time of discharge of their duties, may have eminently merited all possible consideration. It is true, I think, as stated in the inclosure, that the general international law recognizes that a woman who marries an alien becomes subject to the jurisdiction of her husband’s nationality. It seems to me that this is a better rule than the statutory exception quoted. While I cordially agree that public policy in the United States demands that Chinese subjects shall not be naturalized, I strongly incline to the opinion that a lawful marriage between a Chinese woman and an American citizen should insure to the wife the same protection which is granted to women of other nationalities upon their marriage with our citizens.

Without further argument I submit the question to your better judgment.

I am, etc.,

Charles Denby.

[Inclosure in No. 659.—Translation.]

Agreement between Mr. von Brandt, German minister, and the Tsung-li Yamên in regard to marriages between Germans and Chinese.

Under the custom in all (foreign) countries, where a woman marries an alien she becomes subject to the jurisdiction of her husband’s nationality. This custom should also follow in the case of Chinese women.

German consuls have frequently requested me to instruct them as to the jurisdiction a Chinese woman is under who marries a German subject, and acting under their requests it is right and proper that a mutual understanding should be arrived at upon the question.

According to my views a Chinese woman who marries a German subject should be subject to the jurisdiction of the laws of her husband’s nationality. But the fact of her marriage to a subject of Germany should be communicated by the German consul (of the place) to the Chinese local authorities. This would meet the views of both countries.

As to existing marriages between Chinese women and Germans, after the present agreement between Mr. von Brandt and the Tsung-li Yamên is settled and takes effect, German consular officers shall then report them to the proper local authorities. If among them there are cases where the parties have failed to request the German consuls to report their marriage to the local authorities and an action at law is brought against the wife it shall be tried and settled by the Chinese authorities, or if it appears that a Chinese woman has been guilty of crime before her marriage, and for that reason marries a German subject for the purpose of placing herself under the protection of a distant country (Germany), on such cases being brought to light the crime committed shall be punished by the Chinese authorities.

German women entering into the bonds of matrimony with Chinese subjects shall be subject to the laws of their husband’s nationality.

1. Sec. 1994. Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a citizen.
2. Sec. 147. It is further provided by law that any woman (who might lawfully he naturalized under the existing laws) married, or who shall be married, to a citizen of the United States shall be deemed and taken to be a citizen, The recognition of this citizenship will be subject to the qualifications above referred to. It is also provided (Rev. Stat., 2168) that when any alien who has made declaration dies before he is actually naturalized, the widow and children of such alien shall be considered as citizens of the United States upon taking the oaths prescribed by law.