Mr. Broadhead to Mr. Gresham.
Legation of the United States, March 12, 1894. (Received March 26.)
Sir: I have the honor to inform you that several complaints have been made to me by persons formerly citizens of the Swiss Confederacy, but now naturalized citizens of the United States, who have come to this country for business or pleasure, on account of the exaction from them of the military tax which has accrued during their absence, and while they were resident citizens of the United States. The last case which has been presented to me is that of a former Swiss subject who emigrated to the United States in 1886, where he became duly naturalized. At the time he left Switzerland he was not in arrears for any military exemption tax, nor for any military duty, due up to that time. He returned to Switzerland a short time ago to visit relatives. At once, upon his arrival, he was required by the Swiss authorities to pay the military exemption tax for the seven years during which he had been in America. This is wrong and unjust; the requirement was made of him under an order of the police and military departments of the canton of St. Gall, a copy of which (translated) is inclosed herewith, and by which it appears that the federal military department has decided that “Swiss citizens, returning from the United States, if they can not prove that they have served in the army there, or paid military tax there during their stay, shall be required to pay the military tax in Switzerland for and during ten years last past.” This departmental decision was approved by the Federal Council on December 19, 1893.
This was intended to include Swiss citizens who have been naturalized in the United States, as in the case above referred to, because the Swiss Government does not recognize the right of a Swiss subject by naturalization to absolve himself from any of the obligations due by him under the Swiss laws and because the order is claimed to be made under the provisions of the treaty of November 25, 1850, and to the military tax provided for by that treaty, which requires a commutation tax from citizens of the United States (native or naturalized) residing or established in Switzerland; I say native or naturalized because the treaty makes no distinction.
The language of the treaty is as follows:
Art. 1. The citizens of one of the two countries, residing or established in the other, shall be free from personal military service, but they shall be liable to the pecuniary or material contribution which may be required by way of compensation from citizens of the country where they reside who are exempt from that said service.
It will be observed that the treaty refers to citizens in general, which would embrace both native-born and naturalized citizens, and the pecuniary or material contribution which may be exacted is unlimited as to time or amount.
We have, as I am informed, no such thing as a military exemption tax in the United States, or in any of the States, because the citizens are not required to perform military service, as in the manning of forts and arsenals, and the exercise of military discipline except in time of insurrection or invasion, or when temporarily called upon to execute the laws. With Switzerland the case is entirely different, because here it is thought necessary to keep up a regular army composed of citizens of all classes; so that this military exemption tax works in favor of one of [Page 679] the contracting parties only, and that provision of the treaty ought to be abolished. We are estopped from disputing the right of the Swiss Government to exact to the fullest extent the amount fixed by competent legislation from all American citizens residing or established here, for the construction of this clause of the treaty claimed by the Swiss Government has been conceded by the State Department to be substantially correct. In the dispatch of June 19, 1891, from Secretary Fish to this legation, it is stated:
Its design (treaty) was simply to relieve the United States citizens from the obligation of personal military service, leaving them subject to any military contribution which may be exacted by way of commutation or otherwise from Swiss citizens who are exempted from personal military service, whether by reason of physical disability or for any other cause.
The Swiss law of June 28, 1878, referred to in the order from the police and military department, provides as follows:
Foreigners established in Switzerland are likewise subject to this tax, unless they are exempt therefrom in virtue of international treaties, or that they belong to a state in which the Swiss are neither liable to military service nor to the payment of any equivalent tax in money.
It so happens that we have no law now in existence providing for a military tax. If it were otherwise, a native-born citizen of the United States residing in Switzerland would be worse off under the treaty than he would be without it, for without the treaty he would neither be subject to military service nor to the payment of a military tax. Since the treaty of 1850 with the Republic of Switzerland treaties have been concluded between Switzerland and Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Great Britain, Italy, Holland, and Russia, expressly exempting their citizens from personal military service or from any tax in lieu thereof, and this is doubtless the reason why the order of the Swiss military department above referred to was confined to citizens of the United States.
This matter has heretofore been brought to the attention of the Department of State, particularly by my predecessor, Mr. Winchester, in 1886.
I respectfully ask the Department for permission to negotiate with the authorities of the Swiss Confederation with the view of securing an amendment to the provisions of the treaty of November 25, 1850, in respect to the subject referred to in this communication.
I am, etc.,