Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States, With the Annual Message of the President Transmitted to Congress December 3, 1907, (In two parts), Part II

File No. 2956/9–11.

Minister Bryan to the Secretary of State.

American Legation,
Lisbon, July 23, 1907.

No. 333.]

Sir: Complying with the instructions contained in your No. 126, of April 13 (file No. 2956/1), I have the honor to transmit, under separate cover, the regulations governing inilitary service in Portugal and to inclose herewith translations of such chapters as relate to enlistments and drafting for the army, as well as to requirements for the reserve. As I have reported in previous dispatches on this subject, the Portuguese authorities maintain that the new military regulations issued in the decree of the 27th of June, 1907, will remove the chief cause for most of the questions that have arisen between our Governments concerning the status as citizens of Portuguese residing abroad, or for those returning to their native land for visits or permanent residence. These regulations facilitate the payment of ransoms by any Portuguese subject sojourning abroad liable to military service. They authorize the nearest consular officer of this country to receive and transmit remission fees, thus obviating, the necessity for long journeys or a return to Portugal by emigrants who can ill afford such additional expense.

I am transmitting in my dispatch No. 332,^a of this date, a copy and translation of the regulations of the 25th of April, 1907, which modify the hitherto rigorous exactions to which such foreigners who desired to leave Portugal by sea were subjected, and which modifications are referred to in the decree herein mentioned.

I have, etc.,

Charles Page Bryan.

[Inclosure 1.—Translation.]

Regulations governing the service of army and navy recruits.

[Decree of December 24, 1901.]

Chapter I.

general dispositions.

Section I.—The object of recruiting—Constitution of the military forces.

• Article 1. The recruiting service to which this chapter refers is especially meant to supply to the divers units of which the army and navy are composed the men necessary for the constitution of the military forces.
• Art. 2. The minister of war superintends the recruiting service.
• Art. 3. The military force is composed of—

  1. The active troops of the army and navy.

  2. The reserve troops of the army and navy.

  3. The troops organized according to military discipline, although in the time of peace not subject to the war and marine offices.

• Art. 4. The active or regular troops of the army, besides those mentioned as belonging to the respective organizations, consist of soldiers of the active contigents serving their last three years or the two last years when the Government exercises its legal right conceded by the decree of the 13th of July, 1899.
• §§ The regular troops of the army are constituted under the same conditions by the active contingents of the last six years.
• Art. 5. There are two reserves, the first and the second.
• Art. 6. The first reserve is composed of men who have served their legal time in the regular army.
• Art. 7. The second reserve is composed of—

  1. Men who have completed their time in the first reserve.

  2. The men chosen by the inspection committees for military service, who have remained over from the active contingents.

  3. Those whose exempting bounty has been paid.

  4. Of substitutes.

  5. Those who, according to the conditions of this regulation, act as a support to their families and who, under the same regulations, are proved to be good shots.

Section II.—Period of military service.

• Art. 8. The period of military service is—

  (a) Three years for regulars, five in the first reserve and seven in the second for youths incorporated in the units of the army as volunteers, recruits, or conscripts.

  (b) Six years for regulars, five in the first reserve and seven in the second for the delinquents incorporated in the active units of the army.

  (c) Eight years for active troops or regulars, and four in the second reserve for the delinquents enlisted after the 19th of May, 1884, and belonging to the contingencies decreed up to 1884.

  (d) Eight years for regulars, four in the first reserve and three in the second for youths under 20 years and over 15, who have enlisted in the army as apprentice musicians, drummers, trumpeters, and farriers.

  (e) Fifteen years for those enlisted in the second reserve.

  (f) Eighteen years for the delinquents of the second reserve.

  (g) Eight years for regulars and six in the first reserve for the naval recruits.

  (h) Nine years for regulars and six in the first reserve for the naval delinquents.

  (i) Eight years for regulars and one in the first reserve for those under 20 and over 15 who enlist in the navy as cornet players.

  (j) Eight years for regulars for pupils who have left the naval schools.

  § I. The Government, at the end of the second year of their incorporation in the active units, may order the recruits and conscripts of the army to be transferred to the first reserve.

  § II. The substitutes will serve the time that is due from the substituted to complete their legal period of service. The substituted will complete in the second reserve the period of service ordered for the substitutes.

  § III. The period of active service is counted from the day on which the men enter the active units of the army and navy.

  § IV. The period of service in the second reserve for the youths who enlist outright is counted from the date of the swearing in.

  § V. The exempted men serve for five years in the second reserve whatever may be their rank in the line.

  § VI. The period that the men may have served in the active service, as readmitted, or by having contracted any new duties in this service under the terms of the present law, will be excluded in the reserve as well as the additional active service, with the exceptions to be found in the military justice code within any especial law. The time served in active units will in the same way be discounted to the exempted men.

  §§ VII. The men of the second reserve enlisted into active service as substitutes the period prior to their enlistment will be deducted from the time required for them to remain in the reserve.

  § VIII. The period of active service for the men quartered in the over-sea provinces will be counted as double for all purposes from the day of their disembarkation abroad to the day they embark for home. The accounting will be made after the men have returned to Portugal.

  § IX. All the soldiers of the line at the completion of the period at which they are obliged to enter the second reserve, will retain their names in the registers of the military service until they are over 45 years of age, in order that they may, in case of war only, be utilized in local defense, having no duties whatever in the time of peace. In such cases the date at which they were relieved from military service must be definitely recorded in their notebooks, stating when their duties end, or if at their termination the men still remain in active service they must state when their service in the respective corps will end.

• Art. 9. Excepting in extraordinary cases, recognized as such by the Government, the commanders of the different corps will transfer to the reserve or release from military service all soldiers who are entitled to this change in their status with the following conditions:

  1. That they are not involved in any court-martial or undergoing any sentence passed by the military courts.

  2. That they are not undergoing any military punishment.

  3. That they are not ill in hospital or convalescent or on sick leave granted by the health committee, unless they desire to be transferred to the reserve or to be personally dismissed.

  § I. To men serving on ships stationed outside the ports of the Kingdom, and to those in any army corps stationed in the over-sea colonies, tranfer to the reserve can only be granted after their return to Portugal, unless they should wish to reside in the colonies as reservists, in which case they can be transferred to the reserves as soon as the order for their return journey has been received.

  § II. Transfer to the reserve or release from military service when caused by extraordinary circumstances will be granted as soon as these circumstances terminate.

• Art. 10. The registered leaves of absence, in times of peace, will be granted by the commanding officers of the corps according to the terms of the regulations, at the request of the commanders of the companies or batteries, according to the number of leaves of absence fixed by the secretary of war.
• Art. 11. No man in active service can obtain certificates of physical incapacity during the first six months of their incorporation in the actve units and without having completed their military instruction, unless there be a case of serious lesion or deformity that absolutely forbids work or that may cause danger of contagion to the collective force.

The same procedure will be used in regard to men of the second reserve.

§ The men to whom, during the first year of incorporation into active corps of the army, leave is granted by the hospital inspection committee will receive no pay, and the leave they may have had before completing their military instruction will be deducted in their time of service.

Section III.—General conditions of military service.

• Art. 12. Military service must be performed personally and is obligatory, the following alone being permitted:

  1. Substitution between brothers.

  2. Exemption by bounty payment from active service and from the first reserve.

  3. The postponement of a brother’s inscription in the military lists.

  4. The postponement of the inscription of the masters and crews of lifeboats.

  5. The postponement of the inscription of the youths who study theology.

  6. The exclusion of priests in sacred orders and of sailors to which No. 4 refers.

• Art. 13. The enforced military service commences in the year in which the youths attain their twenty-eighth year.

  § 1. Any youth over 16 years possessing the necessary height and physique can enlist before that time.

  § 2. In time of peace the enforcing of the military service for those having been included in the inscription is proscribed at the conclusion of ten years, counted from the day on which they were called for military service.

• Art. 14. The contingents destined for the municipal and fiscal guards will be incorporated in the army, the corps of the said guards being filled by duly instructed men transferred from active troops, preference being given to those who voluntarily offer their services in the same corps.

  § 1. The home office, on the proposal by the commander in chief of the municipal guards, will communicate to the war offce the number of men having, according to the list, one year of service that are necessary to complete the respective corps; the same communication will be made to the exchequer office with regard to the fiscal guards. The war office will determine every year the number of men which the military divisions will contribute to the municipal and fiscal guards.

  § 2. The men transferred from the army to the municipal and fiscal guards should complete in these organizations the period for active service which they owe, according to the nature of their enlistment, excepting when they are not acceptable in the guards corps, in which cases they will be returned to the army, where they will complete their time of service.

Chapter VIII.

substitutions—ransoms.

Section I.—Substitutions.

• Art. 149. The youths who are proclaimed recruits, and men of the army and navy classified as volunteers or recruits, whatever contingent they may belong to, are permitted to substitute brothers for themselves, on condition that they be free from the obligation of active service and that they are not over 35 years of age.
• Art. 150. The youths who in the terms of the preceding article wish to substitute themselves will give in writing their request to the commanders of the reserve and recruit district if they belong to the second or if they have not been enlisted, and to the commanders of the respective corps if they have served in active corps, so that they may be duly sent to the war office or to the ministry for marine and the colonies, accompanied by the following documents:

  1. Contract for substitution.

  2. Certificate passed by the commander of the district for recruiting and reserve that the substitute was not judged incapable of service by the medical inspectors or that he is free from enforced active service or with the first reserve.

  3. Certificate signed by the parish priest and the regedor (see note 1) giving residence and birthplace, whether married or single, or a widower without children, and in case of the death of these, their respective death certificates.

  4. Certificate of the criminal register of his native district, proving the substitute to be free of crime, or if he is under sentence, a certificate of the condemning sentence, proving it is not incompatible with military service.

  5. A certificate of good conduct passed by the administrative authority or the police of the domicile of the substitute.

  6. A certificate of identity of the substitute, signed by the commander of the district for recruiting and reserve, or by the second officer in command, according to circumstances, before trustworthy witnesses.

  7. Bond.

  § 1. The substitutes who belong to contingents decreed up to 1895, and are free from enforced military service for having exceeded the number of lots of the contingents voted for the active corps of the army or navy, should, besides the documents mentioned in Nos. 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, present also a certificate of age showing they have not exceeded 35 years, and a certificate, passed by the respective committee, proving that the substitute was on the conscription lists.

  § 2. The documents referred to in the preceding paragraph and Nos. 3, 4, and 5 should be written on stamped paper and signed by an attorney; those designated by the Nos. 2, 4, and 6 should be authenticated with the stamp of the offices where they are passed.

  § 3. The documents required by the Nos. 3, 4, and 5 are essential for the execution of this article when its date be thirty days before that of the written petition in which the substitution is requested.

  § 4. When the substitute has personally gone through all the military service, besides the document designated by the No. 5 the military notebook should also be added to the written petition, or a certified copy and certificate of what is stated in the disciplinary registry, showing the man’s good conduct during his period of service. The document referred to in § 1 and No. 2, and also Nos. 4 and 5, may be dispensed with if the substitution be effected within a month’s time of the substitute quitting active service. When the substitute belongs to the second reserve the written petition should be accompanied by a register of notes, the documents mentioned in § 1 and No. 2 being dispensed with, and also the Nos. 4 and 5 under the conditions mentioned above.

• Art. 151. Should the substitute not present himself, the dispatch granting the substitution will be annulled, and the secretary of the committee of the inscription lists will, at the request of the commander of the recruiting and reserve district, notify the substituted to present himself within forty-eight hours to receive his permit.

  § 1. The said dispatch will also be annulled if when the substitute has presented himself he be judged permanently or temporarily incapable of military service, in which case the substituted will be entered on the lists, being only allowed to make a new written petition for a-fresh substitute after having enlisted. In the same way the substitute will be entered on the lists should the substitute be declared incapable of service within six months of his enlistment.

  § 2. Should the substitute not present himself after having received the notice, the disposition in article 168 is applicable.

• Art. 152. When the enlistment of the substitute has been obtained by documents to falsely testify to his capacity for military service, or when the conditions referred to in § 4 of article 150 have been concealed, the contract of substitution will be annulled and the substitute forced to enlist and serve the time he was previously liable to, criminal responsibility falling on those who made the false statements.

Section II.—Bounties.

• Art. 153. The bounties to secure exemption from active service in the army or navy may be affected before or after enlisting in the active-service corps.
• Art. 154. The amount of the bounty is 150$000 reis, or 300$000 reis in the case of delinquents for the youths exempted before enlisting in the active corps, or being line soldiers in the second reserve before being added to the preferred number of the corps where they have been transferred as substitutes for soldiers of the army or navy who have served in the corps for six months at least and are ready for the service.

  § 1. The men wishing to secure exemption before the time appointed in No. 2 of this article will pay the bounty referred to in No. 1.

  § 2. The bounty referred to in No. 1 of this article may be paid in three semiannual installments, the first being paid as soon as the soldier or sailor presents his petition, exception being made to those who are absent, these paying the whole amount at once.

  Payment of the bounty in installments can only be permitted when the soldier or sailor presents some one of assured integrity to stand as surety for him and who will guarantee on a written form to give up to the military authorities the man he stands surety for or pay the installments due should he fail to pay them on the day fixed.

  The bond will be registered by the authorities who granted the permit, but it is the respective commanders of the recruiting and reserve district who have to take the necessary measures to fix the responsibility of the person acting in surety in view of the bond referred to, which will be sent him at the proper time by the commander of the active unit or regiment, if the latter has recorded it in his archives.

  § 3. To the men indicated in No. 2 and in § 1 who within due time state their wish to pay bounty those articles of uniform strictly indispensable should alone be distributed.

  At the termination of the six months from the time of enlistment or on the day following that on which their instruction was considered completed if they should not purchase exemption themselves they will be given the remaining articles of uniform.

  § 4. The product of these bounties will constitute a fund to the State, and will be exclusively applied—that of the army recruits to the expenses for the instructions of the second reserve, for the recruiting services under the military authorities, and for buying provisions of war, and that of the naval recruits for the acquisition of articles for naval use.

  § 5. The exempted recruits who, having been called as substitutes for active service, are freed from this service because their respective contingents had an excess in numbers, or had been by error classified as delinquents, may write a petition within the period of two years from the date on which they were released from the service, or of the decision by which they were designated as delinquents, requesting that the sum paid for their exemption—150 or 50$000 reis—be reinstated to them. After the aforesaid period they lose all right to any restitution.

  In the same way the men wrongly called to active service have an equal right to restitution, as well as those whose bounty, by order of the minister of war or of marine, is not confirmed.

  The written petition should be sent in to the war or marine offices, with documents of proof and the roster proving that the contingent was complete if the reason be the excess over the contingent.

• Art. 155. The youths over 14 years of age and the men of the second reserve liable to be called as supplementaries to active service who should before this takes place desire to go abroad may exempt themselves beforehand by paying 150$000 reis. This bounty should be paid at one time.
• Art. 156. Those individuals not yet incorporated in the active units who request from the secretary of the committee for the drawing of lots a permit with which they present themselves to the commander of the recruits and reserve district, who will supply them with a fresh permit for them to pay the price of their exemption on the respective installment in the central treasury of the district or in the treasury of the concelho.

  § 1. The receipt of the sum paid down will be recorded in the archives of the head district offices, the bounty being definitely acknowledged after being paid in full and noted down in the recruiting books.

  § 2. The youths exempted before being brought before the committee of inspectors of the recruits will be enlisted without inspection, and if, after having enlisted in the second reserve, they are judged incapable of military service by the hospital committee, they shall have no right whatever to restitution.

  § 4. Individuals who request exemption have no right to the subsidy and transport in article 77.

  § 5. The commander of the recruit and reserve districts will send in to the war office, or to the marine office in the case of men subject to naval service, monthly reports of the youths exempted before enlistment and of those enlisted in the second reserve who were exempted before presenting themselves in active service units. When there are no exemptions during the month the commanders referred to will substitute for the report a note communicating the fact.

• Art. 157. To make effective the exemptions of the men incorporated during the month the commanders referred to will substitute for the report a note communicating the fact.
• § 2. The men who wish to secure exemption will duly request from the commanders of the corps permits (according to form No. 36) to permit them to pay into the treasury of the district where their corps in quartered the accounts of their bounties, stating at the same time whether they wish to pay by installments, should they be included in § 1 of article 154.

  2. The written petitions of the men asking to be allowed to pay their bounties should be sent into the war office, or to the marine office when the men are for naval service, accompanied by receipts for the sums paid in by the book of military notes and its corresponding information.

  3. The exceptions will only be considered as affected when the bounty has been all paid in. The commander of the corps should communicate in his book of military notes that the man has paid any debt he may have in the administrative council, designating the time he actually served, leaves of all kinds not being counted excepting that which it is usual to grant at Christmas, from Quinquagesima Sunday until Ash Wednesday Sunday, and at Easter, illness and other contingencies not being counted.

  4. Registered leave of absence will be given to those men who send in their petitions for exemptions, having fulfilled the preceding condition, until their petition be acted upon at headquarters, when the bounties are paid down in lump sums or until the last installments are paid, when it is by installments.

  5. The men who send in petitions to be exempted, whatever may be their status, have no right to payment of return passage to their domicile on the occasion when the exemption is granted them.

• Art. 158. When the bounty is paid by installments those interested should, apart from the written intention, request for themselves or for their representatives, after the lapse of six months from the time their permit was given them, a fresh permit for the payment of the second installment, acting in the same manner, with relation to the third and last installment of the bounty, for fear the exemption be not effective in spite of the responsibility taken by persons acting as their sureties, there being no right to the restitution of installments already paid in.
• § 1. In the recruit and reserve district and in the active units a notebook will be kept in which will be inscribed the installmentst that are paid in. The commanders of the active units will send to the war office a monthly report of the installments paid in.
• Art. 159. When the stamps of the office where the receipt was signed is not legible the different signatures should be made before and certified by a notary. The receipt will always indicate the amount of the installment paid in when the bounties are paid by installments.
• Art. 160. The youths who wish to pay their bounties in a recruit or reserve district, other than that in which they are entered on the military lists, should send in a written petition to the commander of the military division in which they reside and to the military commander when they reside in the islands adjoining Portugal. Care will be taken at the respective headquarters that the permit (form No. 30) shall be remitted from the district of the military lists to that of the residence of the youths referred to, so that in the latter the permits may be drawn up and given to those interested. After the receipt for payments has been presented the youths will be enlisted in the recruit and reserve district of their place of residence, if their enlistment has not been previously verified. The receipt for the payment of the bounties will afterwards be sent to the residence district to that of the conscription lists, so that they be written down in the receipt book and the documents be recorded in the archives.
• § —. The above will also hold good with regard to soldiers of the second reserve who wish to obtain their exemption because they are liable to be called to active service as supplementaries.
• Art. 161. The commanders of the recruit and reserve districts should not demand the characteristic marks in the permits of youths residing in the oversea colonies or in a foreign country who wish to pay their bounties through a representative.

[Extracts from the Diario do Governo, July 1, 1907.]

Instructions to which the decree of this date (June 27, 1907) refers.

1. Emigrants over 14 years of age, on whom military service is not yet enforced, and who have fulfilled the conditions established in section 1 of article 4 of the law of the 25th of April, 1907, when they attain the age for conscription in the military lists, can obtain their freedom from active service and from the first reserve by paying” a bounty of 150$000 reis, account being taken of any deposit that may have been made before the Portuguese consul or vice-consul of the locality where they reside, or, failing that, at the nearest locality possessing a consular functionary.

2. The emigrants under 14 years of age, on attaining the legal age for inscription on the military lists, secure exemption for themselves by paying the sum of 150$000 reis before the above-mentioned authorities.

3. The aforesaid disposition applied to individuals who may have emigrated before the 25th of April, 1907, when they are over 26 years of age and are considered delinquents, and also to emigrants over 14 years of age who do not fulfill the conditions included in article 155 of the rules for the service of the 24th of December, 1901, when they attain the legal age for inscription in the military lists.

4. Individuals over 20 years of age and under 30 who are not called for conscription can obtain exemption for 150$000 reis, their intention being afterwards legalized by being recorded in the military lists.

5. Individuals who have not yet attained 26 years of age and are declared delinquents will pay a bounty of 300$000 reis.

6. The amount of the exemption will be paid in a lump sum.

7. The consular functionary will give receipts to the persons interested of the amount received, and will immediately request the respective military notebooks from the war office. The receipts will constitute documents until the exempted men receive their record books, which should be requested at the consulate within six months of the date on which the bounty was paid, and given in exchange for the respective receipts.

8. Immediately after the payment of the bounties the exempted men will take the oath of fealty, excepting those already enlisted in the second reserve, and the respective notes m/85 of the Portuguese consular rules will be sent every month to the war office.

9. Emigrants who, in the conditions of section 1 of article 4 of the aforesaid law, have a right to the amount of bounty or deposit they may have made before emigrating should address a written petition to the war office for its restitution within two years from the date on which for any reason they obtained their release from active service. After this period of time they lose all right to restitution.

10. The interest on the bonus will be sent every month to the Bank of Portugal by a check to order of the war office with a copy of the report as here shown, in which the statement should be made that it is for the bonus fund.

11. When such procedure is impossible the remittance may be made through the respective consular functionary to the nearest consulate, where the measures indicated in depositions 10 and 11 can be taken by check to order of the same office on any thoroughly trustworthy bank in Lisbon or Oporto.

12. When even this procedure is impracticable the same remittance may be made by the respective consular functionary to the nearest consulate where one of the means of remitting prescribed in 10 and 11 can be adopted.

13. The exempt men, under these conditions, would be considered as residing in the localities where they live, the documents required in article 70, section 4, of the regulations for the reserve being dispensed with.

14. The consular functionaries will directly communicate with the war office for the observance of the said conditions.

[Inclosure 2.—Translation.]

Section IV.—Regulations governing army reserves.

Art. 70. Recruits who desire to go abroad should deliver to the district commandant their documents, accompanied by enlistment papers in due form, and they must, besides, furnish a record of their military life and the identification proofs of the recruits. These will deliver the report to the headquarters of the division, which will forward it to the commanding officer, who, with the indorsement of the secretary, in case it is approved, will transmit the permit to the recruits, and they, in turn, will present the same to the civil authorities.

1. Not printed.