File No. 6272/1.

The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Merry.

No. 1.]

Sir: The department has received your No. 1277, of April 25, 1907, relative to the position taken by the Nicaraguan Government on the subject of the citizenship of persons born in Nicaragua of foreign parents, and submitting a circular from the Nicaraguan Government to the political chiefs, which begins as follows:

“The Government has seen with regret that some Nicaraguans, with the antipatriotic end of liberating themselves from public charges and from the contributions of natives, renounce their country and claim to be foreigners on their own soil, pretending that they are covered by the flag of their predecessors, who were European immigrants domiciliated and having died in the country,” etc.

The law of Nicaragua relating to nationality was transmitted to your Legation September 25, 1906, by the minister of justice, and one article is as follows:

“1. Those born in Nicaragua of Nicaraguan parents or of foreigners domiciled therein” are Nicaraguans. (Report of the Citizenship Board, p. 467.)

The circular which you now transmit does not, in fact, appear to go beyond the established law of Nicaragua, and, in the absence of any cases of its enforcement to the oppression of American citizens, seems to require no representation from this Government.

You state, however, that Mr. Henry Cole, a native of Nicaragua, whose father was born in the United States and who was himself educated in this country, has applied to you for a passport, and you ask whether he should be granted one. You add that he has one which is about to expire and has always been treated as an American by the local authorities. If he is prepared to comply with the rules governing applications for passports, the department sees no reason for his not receiving a passport, and applications for passports from persons similarly situated may also be granted.

It does not seem necessary to anticipate a conflicting claim on the part of the Nicaraguan Government to the services of those who are in good faith American citizens, and if cases of such conflict should arise in the future, their treatment would depend largely upon the circumstances surrounding each case.

I am, etc.,

Robert Bacon.