Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Berlin, August 12, 1902.
Sir: I have the honor to report that, in view of the fact that the number of cases of the expulsion of American citizens of German origin has considerably increased during the current summer, and of the announcement in the newspapers that the Prussian minister of the [Page 441] interior had again (see dispatch No. 1624,a of May 4, 1901) called the attention of provincial officials to the desirability of curtailing the sojourn in Prussia of native Germans who had not performed military service before their emigration, the general subject of the treatment of naturalized American citizens was brought up in conversation at the foreign office with Dr. von Mühlberg this afternoon.
Statements were made on the part of the embassy as follows:
No sympathy whatever is felt with the person who deliberately emigrates and avails himself of the American naturalization laws for the mere purpose of escaping military service in Germany, and there is no wish on the part of the American authorities to enable such persons to make a convenience of their American naturalization. The embassy has also consistently declined to intervene in behalf of persons whose wish was to make their permanent residence in Germany.
It is thought, however, that where German emigrants have fulfilled the conditions necessary to entitle them to “be treated as American citizens” they should actually be so treated, and when they have emigrated in good faith they should be permitted to sojourn in Germany, for their business or pleasure, to visit at their former homes, or to enjoy the benefits afforded by German watering places, etc., in accordance with the terms of the treaty with Prussia of 1828.
The sovereign right of Prussia to expel persons whose presence is not considered desirable is not contested, but it is thought that the American Government has the right to know why the presence of any American citizen is so considered.
Dr. Von Mühlberg’s attention was called to a number of cases now pending, where naturalized American citizens have received orders to leave the country after a stay of a few weeks. He said that he would take the matter up personally and would communicate with the Prussian minister of the interior in regard to it at once.
I have, etc.,
- Printed, Foreign Relations, 1901, page 177.↩