File No. 365.117/11.
Ambassador Page to
the Secretary of State.
No. 17.]
American Embassy,
Rome,
November 4, 1913.
Sir: In reply to the Department’s No. 143 of
July 15, 1913, relating to the subject of military service in Italy, I
have the honor to enclose a copy of a memorandum sent by this Embassy to
the Minister of War on the 26th of August, and a copy and translation of
the Minister of War’s commentaries on the said memorandum.
From these commentaries it would appear that the age limits at present
are sixteen and thirty-two.
Although the communication of the Minister of War touches upon other
matters not mentioned in the Department’s instruction, it
[Page 400]
seemed worth while to transmit
it in full as an authoritative statement on the subject of evasion of
military service, and, as such, of possible use for future
reference.
I have [etc.]
[Inclosure 1.]
The American Embassy to
the Ministry of War.
memorandum.
A former Italian subject who returns to Italy after the age of
thirty-two is liable for service only in the Territorial Reserve
Army. However, his exemption from punishment for past failure to
appear is contingent upon his having complied with certain
formalities (which it is provided may be performed at an Italan
embassy or consulate aboard). These formalities are laid down in.
Articles 31 and 33 of the Law of March 20, 1907, on the Military
Service of Italians abroad, and include:
1. A demand, made in due time before the date of recruitment of the
class to which he belongs, by the said Italian subject upon the
diplomatic or consular authorities for medical examination to
establish ability or non-ability to serve.
2. If this examination be waived, the said Italian subject, presuming
himself able to serve, a demand made by him upon the said
authorities that, he be enlisted in the category to which he is
entitled to belong, and granted exemption from military service in
time of peace so long as his foreign residence continues. This
exemption, however, is not granted to one who left Italy to settle
in the United States after he reached the age of sixteen.
3. If the said Italian subject presumes himself to be able to serve,
and to be entitled to inscription in the category of those exempt,
both at home and abroad, from service in time of peace, the
transmission to the Council of Recruitment (Consiglio di Leva)
either directly or through the mayor of his commune, of the
documents necessary to prove the right claimed.
Note.—A demand for exemption from service may be made by the elder of
the two brothers on the ground of the substitution of the service of
the younger. This demand must be explicitly supported by the younger
and service accepted by him.
These formalities must be gone through in order to gain immunity from
penalty on a return to Italy. The Italian subject who does not
comply with them is liable to be declared a deserter, and in this
circumstance the law provides that he shall be liable to punishment
at any time within a period (which varies according to the penalty
prescribed) of from five to twenty years from the date when the
desertion became effective, or from the date when the offender was
sentenced, and in no case before he shall have reached the age of
fifty.
(Articles 62, 63 and 67 of the Penal Military Code.)
American Embassy,
Rome, November 4, 1913.
[Inclosure 2—Translation.]
The Ministry of War to
the American Embassy.
Ministry of War,
Rome,
September 16, 1913.
This Ministry, in returning the memorandum herewith enclosed, has the
honor to state the following as a completion and partial amendment
of the matter contained in the same:
An Italian citizen (cittadino) born abroad in any country, or one who
left Italy before his sixteenth year, to go to some country across
the ocean (therefore to the United States), residing there
uninterruptedly, shall be entitled to the provisional exemption from
military service as long as his residence abroad lasts, in pursuance
of Article 90 of the revised text of the laws on recruitment.
The recognition of the right to provisional exemption from service
can be obtained at any time, both during the period of recruitment
and afterwards.
[Page 401]
This
recognition can be sought from the diplomatic or consular authority
in whose jurisdiction the subject resides.
The Italian diplomatic or consular authority, having recognized the
physical fitness of the citizen for military service (by means of a
medical examination, or after a statement by the interested person
that he considers himself fit, without submitting himself to the
medical examination), and after having ascertained that all of the
conditions required by the law have been complied with, shall
pronounce, in regard to the citizen, a decision of enlistment, and
of temporary exemption from the service with regard to the said cit
zen, issuing a statement relative to the provision adopted to the
interested person, and advising the competent Council of Recruitment
in the Kingdom thereof.
A citizen who is already guilty of the crime of failure to enlist
(renitenza), because he omitted to have his right to the temporary
exemption from service, at the time of the enlistment of his class,
duly recognized, shall be administratively acquitted from the crime
imputed to him (and consequently relieved from punishment) as soon
as the above-mentioned right be recognized in his favor.
The citizen admitted to the temporary exemption from the service
shall not be obliged to serve under arms in time of peace as long as
his residence abroad lasts. If he returns to Italy before the end of
his thirty-second year of age he loses the benefit of the exemption
and is bound to serve for the whole time prescribed for him. If he
returns to Italy after the end of the thirty-second year of age, he
is exempted from serving and shall be inscribed in the Territorial
Reserves.
As an explanation of the note appended to the memorandum, the
following is to be noted:
It is true that an application for exemption from service may be made
by the elder of the two brothers, with a view to having his younger
brother substituted for him.
This application shall be explicitly confirmed by the younger
brother, and contain his acceptation of the obligation to serve in
the army.
This institution is designated, in the law on recruitment, by the
name of Substitution of a Brother (Surrogazione di fratello). It is
necessary, however, to bear in mind that the substitution of a
brother, under the recruitment law now in force, will not produce
the effect for which it was generally demanded, namely, to exempt
from all obligations of service in the army of the first line (prima
categoria) the applicant who intends to be substituted, because the
elder brother, who afterwards represents the younger brother in the
call of the class to which the latter belongs, will not find any
grounds for his exemption (according to the limitations introduced
in the number of cases for assignment to the second and third
category) and should therefore be enlisted again in the first
category.
An Italian citizen shall be guilty of desertion if, without a
justified motive, he does not present himself for enlistment, and
will consequently be denounced to the judicial authority.
If condemned in his absence, he cannot profit by the prescription
before the end of his fiftieth year of age.
For the Minister:
[Signature illegible.]
