File No. 711.654/1–3.
Ambassador Griscom to
the Secretary of State.
No. 82.]
American Embassy,
Rome,
June 5, 1907.
Sir: I have the honor to report that on May
25, in pursuance of your instruction No. 173 of February 11 last to my
predecessor Mr. White, I addressed to the Italian Minister for Foreign
Affairs a note, a copy of which is enclosed herewith, proposing that
negotiations be entered into with a view to agreeing upon a
naturalization convention based upon Article 2 of our treaty with Norway
and Sweden, and Article 1 of our treaty with the North German
Confederation.
I presented this note personally to his excellency Mr. Tittoni, the
Italian Minister for Foreign Affairs, and supported it verbally by such
arguments as occurred to me. Mr. Tittoni received the suggestion most
favorably and said that hitherto the Government of Italy had been
disposed to regard the Civil Code as almost unalterable. He, on the
contrary, believed that the national code of laws should be altered to
meet changed conditions. He thought that an agreement between the United
States and Italy about naturalization would be a useful and necessary
measure, and therefore he was entirely willing to begin negotiations,
and would at once appoint a commission to study the matter and report to
him.
Referring to his willingness to change the Civil Code to meet conditions
determined by treaty, he adverted to Article 35 bis, of the new project
for an emigration law, which would modify the present code with regard
to the method by which Italian subjects who have abandoned Italian
citizenship may again acquire it. I enclose for your information a
translation of this article. Mr. Tittoni said that he himself was the
author of the proposed law, and from this fact I might judge that the
possibility of having to change the code to meet a convention of
naturalization with the United States did not alarm him. One of my
predecessors, General Draper, informed me recently that when in 1894 he
conducted negotiations on this very subject, the Italian Government
refused to enter into a naturalization treaty, giving as a principal
objection that it would require changes in the organic law of Italy.
I am therefore able to report to you that your suggestion of a
naturalization convention could hardly have had a more encouraging
reception than that which has been accorded it by Mr. Tittoni. It
remains to be seen, however, just how it will be viewed by the Italian
Ministers of War and Justice.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure 1.]
Ambassador Griscom to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs.
American Embassy,
Rome,
May 25, 1907.
Excellency: I have the honor to invite
your excellency’s attention to the fact that in the United States
since the beginning of the month of February last naturalizations
have been conferred in accordance with the provisions of a new
[Page 394]
naturalization law
approved June 29, 1906. I beg to send herewith enclosed for your
possible interest a copy of this act. The inauguration of the more
rigid system which that law requires makes the present an
appropriate time, in the opinion of my Government, to open
negotiations with the Government of Italy looking to conventional
agreements similar to those which the United States now has with
several European countries, defining the rights of their citizens or
subjects, respectively, when they return to the country of their
origin. Under the new law it is required that the Federal Government
shall receive notice of all naturalizations pending and
accomplished, and adequate means are provided for setting aside
naturalizations improperly granted in the past as well as in the
future, while general control of all naturalization matters is
lodged with the Federal Government.
I am directed by my Government to bring these facts to your
excellency’s notice and at the same time to present to you certain
further considerations.
[At this point the note incorporates the text of the Department’s
instruction No. 173 of February 11, 1907, beginning with the third
paragraph thereof and continuing to its end with no alteration of
the text except the omission of the words “upon those who intended
to use that citizenship “from the last sentence in the paragraph
beginning “Nor has this Government, etc.”; and except such other
alterations as “note “for “instruction,” “my Government” for “this
Government,” etc.]
I renew [etc.]
[Inclosure 2—Translation.]
Article 35 bis of a project for a new Italian
emigration law.
Article 35 bis. Article 13 of the Civil Code at present in force is
modified as follows:
A citizen who has lost his citizenship for any reason set
forth in Article 11 regains it, provided that:
- 1.
- He returns to the Kingdom.
- 2.
- He declares before the official of the civil
bureau his intention to renounce the foreign
citizenship and to fix and establish within one year
his domicile in the Kingdom.
The above declaration will not be necessary for those who have
reestablished and had in the Kingdom their domicile for more than
three years.
