File No. 2956/9–11.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Bryan.
Washington, August 10 1907.
Sir: The department has received your No. 333 and the translation of the Portuguese regulations concerning military service, and notes your statement that the Portuguese authorities maintain that the new regulations will remove the chief cause of any questions which may have arisen between this Government and the Portuguese Government concerning the status of American citizens formerly subjects of Portugal when they return to that country.
The department has examined the new regulations, but is of opinion that they do not touch the question which it is desired to have regulated by a naturalization convention between the two Governments. The object of such a convention would be to define the rights of the citizens or subjects of either country when they return to the other country, whereas the regulations recently adopted by the Portuguese Government relate entirely to the performance of military service and exemption from military service of Portuguese subjects. You are instructed, therefore, to inform the Portuguese Government of this view, and to state that this Government is strongly of opinion that the conclusion of the convention it has proposed will certainly have a beneficial influence in conserving the friendly relations which so happily exist between the United States and Portugal.
I am, etc.,