No. 233.
Mr. Bayard
to Mr. Denby.
Washington, August 27, 1888.
Sir: I have received and considered your No. 659 of the 9th ultimo, concerning the status of Chinese women married to aliens and citing [Page 350] the agreement between Mr. von Brandt, the German minister at Peking, and the Tsung-li Yamên, by which Chinese women married to Germans are to be subject to the jurisdiction of their husbands’ nationality.
Your statement throws light upon the inquiry made here a few days since by the German minister at this capital, and instruction on the subject is for the most part anticipated by my No. 343, of August 18 instant, which communicated to you copy of the memorandum given to Count Arco-Valley, touching Chinese-American marriages. Nothing in the reported agreement between the Tsung-li Yamên and Mr. von Brandt conflicts in any way with the general propositions laid down in that memorandum. The rule accepted by the Government of China, that places a Chinese woman married to a German under the national jurisdiction of the husband, will probably assist in determining the status, in China, of the Chinese wife of an American citizen, assuming the marriage to be consensual and monogamous, and no special agreement on our part with China or modification of our statute to such end appears to be necessary at present.
I am, etc.,