Mr. Loomis to Mr. Hengelmuller.
Washington, December 23, 1903.
Excellency: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of December 15 and original inclosures, presenting the case of Joseph Fuchs, a naturalized citizen of the United States, formerly a subject of Austria-Hungary, who now desires to renounce his American citizenship and resume his allegiance to your Government. The consul of the United States at Budapest, it appears, declined to issue him a statement of his renunciation, and you ask whether there exists on the part of this Government any objection to the proposal of the royal Hungarian ministry of the interior to admit, without such renunciation, into the Hungarian community persons in Joseph Fuchs’s category.
Occasionally the Department has received a request from an American citizen desiring to become a citizen of another country for a certificate that his American citizenship has been renounced, but it has invariably refused to issue such a certificate. By the laws of the United States expatriation is declared to be an inherent right of all men, and when a citizen of a foreign power seeks naturalization as a citizen of the United States he is not required to produce a certificate that his parent country has accepted his renunciation of its citizenship. This Government applies the same principle to American citizens who wish to become the citizens of other powers. It recognizes their right to do so in time of peace, and does not issue to them a certificate of its consent, none such being provided for by our laws.
The consul at Budapest was, therefore, not acting improperly when he refrained from issuing an official statement of Joseph Fuchs’s renunciation of American citizenship. The laws and policy of this Government, however, interpose no obstacle to a recognition of the right of the Government of Austria-Hungary to admit as subjects American citizens who do not present a document from an agent of this Government showing that they have renounced their American citizenship; nor is it the opinion of this Government that the proposed action of the Austro-Hungarian Government will be repugnant to any of the provisions of the naturalization convention of September 20, 1870, between the two Governments.
I have the honor to inclose the documents accompanying your excellency’s note.
Accept, etc.,
Acting Secretary of State,