Mr. Adee to Mr. Partridge.
Washington , July 26, 1893 .
Sir: I have read with interest the remarks contained in your No. 59, of the 12th instant, touching those provisions of the new constitution of Venezuela, promulgated July 5th, which have a bearing on international questions.
The provision that all persons born on Venezuelan soil are citizens, whatever the nationality of their parents, is found in many Spanish-American countries, being derived from the Spanish constitution of 1812. [See Foreign Relations, 1880, p. 113.) It is in most cases either expressly or tacitly qualified by the necessary condition of being or remaining within the jurisdiction of the country of birth. The Venezuelan [Page 735] provision maybe assumed to mean that children so born of alien parents possess a dual nationality, and that while in Venezuela their Venezuelan nationality prevails. In this light it is merely an enunciation of an obvious conflict of laws.
The one hundred and forty-ninth article, requiring the insertion in every contract of public interest of a clause providing that controversies thereunder shall be decided by the Venezuelan tribunals and according to the laws of the Republic, and that in no case can such contract be a cause for international claims, is a gratifying guarantee that, by the organic statute, aliens may assert their contractual rights by suit against the state or federal government. The inherent right of an alien to recur to the diplomatic protection of his government in the event of a denial of justice could not be regarded as impaired were the resort thus offered to him withheld or rendered nugatory.
Your general views regarding this class of questions appear to be, in the main, sound.
I am, etc.
Acting Secretary.